A Day In the Life of a DigiDestined
by ValiantOne1
Summary: A "Slice of Life" story about the Frontier gang and the adventures that awaits them in a new chapter of life and meka leka hi meka hiney hoe Yeah there's my summary...
1. Day 1-1

**A/N:** Hello my fellow fanfic mates. You (the reader) are probably reading this and wondering what new story have I concocted with the Digi-gang this time (Or you may be new to me). To be honest, I don't know, but I plan to find out. I'm basically redoing some of the first fanfics I made and combining it with this story since I didn't like how I wrote them the first time (I was so young and naive). This is probably my last major story I'll ever write, so enjoy it while it lasts. In fact its more of an Epic… and I mean that in its true literal terms.

I guess the reason why I'm writing this story is because I haven't really written one in a "school setting" before. Plus, I'm getting older which means things are starting to change in my life so I won't have as much time as I used to for fanfiction. I'll never forget the first time I found this sight and how excited I was that such a site existed; a place where people could come and collectively create and renovate stories, films, tv shows, and other mediums. And so over the years I've written a few fics as well as read from different fic writers and grown to love the craft. A few fic writers that have inspired me were: don'tchaknowme4life, blackandblood, hEaRtBrEaKeR19, ambiekinz, Red Page, Krystal Karpenter, and utsukushii04, just to name a few. I believe it is because of them that I am the amateur fanfic writer that I am today… but enough of all this sadness and let's get the party started.

**Sidenote:** I have a few OC's I plan to implement into this story as usual, and for all the parenthetical comments you may read throughout the story (Like this one), it's usually a comment either from me or the character depending on the point of view the story is in. I also subliminally add what I call Background Music (BGM) just to spice up the plot a bit. You're free to look them up on Youtube if you like (That's if it hasn't been removed). Well any who (before I run up your time and infringe on copyrights and trademarks and have someone send me a cease and desist letter), enjoy the story and I look forward to your thoughts… ok you can read the chapter now… but first let me get this out of the way.

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Digimon in anyway shape or form and Copyright Infringement is not intended. (Why do we write this again? Has someone actually gotten in trouble for this before?)

**Just A Day In The Life…**

**Day 1**

**(Just A Day In The Life of Takuya Kanbara)  
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Hey there buddy. It is I, Takuya Kanbara; the hotheaded goggle boy you all have grown to love many years ago. You probably just got through reading that depressing essay earlier.

(Me: I heard that)

But let's move on shall we.

It's been a year or so since the last time… since the last time I was in the Digital World that fateful day me and the other chosen digi-destined, brought peace back to the land of the Digital World.

Ever since then, I have grown distant with the others, Izumi, Kouji, Kouichi, Junpei, and Tomoki. It wasn't until a year later I met up with them again at school in Shibuya. After then, we picked up right where we left off as if we had never left each other, and boy those were good times. I still cherish them till this day you are reading this.

Any who, I am right now overseas in my apartment/dorm, which is vacant at the moment, telling you this story. Now how I got here you ask, I still can't explain. Well I can, but it would destroy the whole purpose of this author from writing this story, so before I go any further, "This is the story all about how, my life got flipped, turned upside down, and I'd like to take a minute so just sit right there. And I'll tell you how I became the student sitting in this old chair!"

(Cue Dream Sequence Music)

[_One __week __before__ schools __over__ at __Shibuya __Junior__ High__…_]

It was just another sunny day at Shibuya Junior High. The birds were chirping their sweet melodies, the clouds danced in the pristine blue-sky like fat fluffy bunnies, and the students in the classroom were dead…from boredom.

It was indeed that time of the year where the student body collapses and loses its focus and motivation to go on, and I speak for myself mainly.

Mr. Miyagi, our homeroom teacher who is a short fellow with sagacious eyes that have seen many things in his time, is rambling on about school and how our young futures are ahead of us all after graduation. He wished us the best of luck in our future prosperities. I don't have any by the way.

I'm on the farthest row towards the windows, which is not good for my attention deficit disorder I developed over years. No I'm not A-D-D but it sure does feel like it when I'm in class and the squirrels outside seem to be calling my name… every so often.

Any ways, as I looked across the room, I could see that everyone was either in tears or sleeping. Kouji, who is next me, is one of the sleepers. He is a solemn young man with dark navy hair as dark as the night. At school he looks different without his bandana he his notoriously well known for. To go unnoticed from the teacher, he held his face up with both of his hands so that the teacher wouldn't notice he was sleeping.

Behind me is Kouichi, Kouji's twin brother but with shorter raven hair. He was the optimistic one between him and his brother. He was awake, but daydreaming at the blackboard (the perfect spot to be daydreaming at) and focused on something productive in his brain like what the square root of "x" was.

Last but not least, Izumi, who we like to call Zoe as her nickname, is sitting diagonally behind me with her blond locks and green dazzling eyes, gazing at the teacher. She was one of Mr. Miyagi's favorite students since she got high marks in the class. She glanced at me and gave me this look that means "pay attention or else he'll call on you like always, Kanbara". So I did… and Mr. Miyagi is looking dead at me. I know it's coming so I brace myself for verbal impact.

"Mr. Kanbara", he says in this sagacious deep voice, the equivalence of Morgan Freeman's but in a Japanese tone, " Would you mind explain why you're eyes are wandering in my class, hmm?"

Of course he doesn't want an answer from me as he continues mortifying me in front of my peers.

"Am I not interesting, Mr. Kanbara." There he goes again using my last name as if I come form a prestigious family (No offense mom and dad).

"No sir. You're an interesting teacher, and I love your speeches." I said, trying to end the conversation, only to cause a stir of laughter. Believe me it was unintentional, as he stared a mud hole through me until he looked away and moved on with the class.

-xxx-

_DIIIIIIIIING DOOOONG DIIIIIING DOOOONG… DIIIIIIIIING DOOOONG DIIIIIING DOOOOOOOOONG!_

The long school bell rings and the class immediately becomes alive again as the students vigorously pack up to leave.

"And remember class, I have high hopes for all of you. Even you, Takuya Kanbara." He joked as he watched me watch him. Of course no one cares to see us have this silent eye staring contest as they leave the room like herds of cattle entering an open field called freedom.

As I walk out the door, Kouji, Kouichi, and Izumi are waiting for me like they routinely do. They were all wearing our school uniform in the colors of black slacks/ plaid skirts and gray vests and a white dress shirt underneath with red tie for the finishing touch.

"So what school will you be going to?" Kouichi asked me. He already was thinking about the future, while I couldn't even look past an hour from now.

'I don't know." I simply replied.

"You should seriously be considering your options, Takuya, because schools aren't going to be open for long… at least, not all the good ones."

I gasped in my head.

"We'll what about you guys? Where are you guys going?"

"Me and Kouichi are applying to the Shinjuku academy. We heard they have a good engineering program," Kouji said to me in this nonchalant tone he always has.

"What about you?" I said to Izumi. I catch her eyeing away from me.

She finally looked at me with this uncertainty in her eyes. "Well, I'm not quite sure yet, its either Fukuyama or the academy for me as well."

It was the first time it dawned on me that we all were possibly going to separate schools.

"Well I'm probably going to do the same," I quickly came up with an answer just so that I would seem to have a plan when I didn't.

"Dude, have you studied yet for the entrance exam?" Kouichi asked.

"No? Why?"

"Exams are tomorrow!"

"WHAT? HOW COME I'M JUST HEARING ABOUT THIS?" I shriek so loud the kids nearest us nearly have a close heart attack.

"It's been on the bulletin for the past few weeks," Kouichi pointed at the bulletin nearby with the flier on it to prove his case, "Plus, everyone knows that."

"I even tried to tell you about it." Zoe scolded me in a reprimanding tone.

"NO you didn't."

"Did too!"

We both have a quick staring contest, glaring into each other's eyes with sparks flying.

"If I were you, I'd go home as soon as possible, and study," Kouji informed with his arms folded, posing for all the fangirls walking by.

"Beans, your right! I got to get to it then," with that, I ran off to the nearest door to check out whatever schools would possibly take me in with open (or closed) arms.

-xxx-

Before I went home, I had to stop, smell the coffee, and take a break for the day. I passed by the familiar local café restaurant I was accustomed to. I unbuttoned the buttons on my black uniform suit that I was wearing, un-tucked my white dress shirt, and loosened my red tie, before I headed in as if I wear preparing to NOT impress an employer. My hair was a mess, but it was the least of my worries at the moment.

I tried not to think of the fact that I might not be going to any of the high schools the others might be going to, but it lingered in the back of my mind like an unforgiving past.

The café was mostly ghost town vacant except for a few adult couples sitting with each other, enjoying one anther's company. I could here the small talk they gave one another, accompanied by the laughter.

I sat down next to one of the windows, relaxing my mind for a bit, but before long I heard the familiar sound of a young woman's voice, beckoning for my attention. It was the lovely waitress Keiko Maruyama, who I've gotten to known, over the years of attending the restaurant. For some unknown reason we called her Lilica or Lily.

She looked at me with her hazelnut brown eyes as her auburn hair tied in a ponytail, flicked in its place. She tucked her hand in her apron pocket to bring out a pen and pad.

"Tough day I see. Would you like anything, Takuya? Perhaps the usual."

I stared at her with a perplexed expression.

"The usual? I have a usual?" my face flustered as usual whenever I'm around a female specimen.

"Yes you do," she said with a curious smile before she continued, "Every time you've had a great day you ask for a Coke. Whenever you've had a tough day you ask for iced tea." She read me like an open book, page by page.

Of course by now I am even more flustered with bashfulness, since I never realized I could be so predictable.

"Well today is something new…" I said with an awkward quiver in my voice.

"Really?" she replied, inquisitively.

"I'll have… a cup of hot cocoa."

She smiled and walked off, leaving me grinning like a goofy buffoon.

-xxx-

My head was slumped against the cold table, ignoring the countless other faces that have possibly been on the exact table (I could imagine the slobber as well).

Just then, my old friend who is a grade higher than me, Junpei Shibayama, comes walking in with a lethargic look on his broad face. We call him "JP" for short.

Not seeing me at first, he came up from behind then turned around and noticed my face. He took a seat right in front of me and unloaded his backpack.

He stood a well 6 feet and 4 inches (yeah he's a big guy), with brown hair like mine, and hazel eyes. He's somewhat chubby, but he lost most of his baby fat during puberty. Surprisingly, his voice dropped slightly to a more mature young teen voice.

"So what's up Takuya? I heard you and the others are graduating."

"Yep…"

"So you know what school you'll be entering?"

My stomach turned on its own.

"No I don't. Why does everyone keep asking me?"

He grimaced, "Because everyone wants to know, duh." He gives me a "you're a moron look".

"So how's high school? Think I'll survive?" I asked him as a witness to what goes on in high schools around the country.

"Haha, It's tough but you'll manage if you keep up with you're studies. OH yeah and don't do drugs and that sort of stuff."

I sighed but not because of his remark, but because I still had that unsure feeling lingering inside me.

"Here's your cup of hot cocoa!" Lilica the waitress said as she handed me the hot cup. She smiled at both Junpei and I before she went back to work, her ponytail flicking from side to side.

"Hey, you think you can get me something?" JP called out to the young woman.

"What would that be?" she asks as she turns on her heel.

"I was thinking maybe _you_."

She smirked with sarcasm and turned around ignoring his serious request as she returned to her job.

"First Izumi now her? You don't quit do you?" I scolded. He was a real hopeless romantic.

"Hey, what can I say? I'm a chick magnet."

"Pppppffft yeah right. When will you ever learn Lily is not interested in you?"

He glared daggers at my lighthearted insult. "Don't you have an exam to study for or something?"

I then and there quickly realized I forgot all about it. I already had trouble studying, but now I was going to cut my time short by overstaying at the café.

I jolted out of my seat and strapped my bag over my shoulder before I sprint out the door like a robber escaping the police. I left my drink behind without taking a single sip.

"I wonder if he's going to drink this?" JP looked around before he took a sip from the very mug OF COCOA I left by ACCIDENT!

Simultaneously, Lilica walked by catching a glimpse of the greedy bastard drinking the hot drink. He looked back at her before he shamefully grinned. With disgust she walked off making a high pitched "hmph" sound.

The young man looked at her as she walked of. "Whaaat?"

-xxx-

"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" I yelled, but unfortunately my little brother, Shinya, came from behind the corner, ambushing me with his sneering insults already. What did I do to deserve this?

"So you finally found your way home Takuya-san. Impressive. I was afraid I would have to call the searching squad to find you."

"Haha very funny little one. Now where's Mom and Dad?"

"I don't know. I think they left to the market or something."

Some people say that my brother looks like me but shorter. I beg to differ.

"Shinya! What's taking you so long? I can't keep the game paused forever! Oh, hi Takuya." From around the corner, my young friend, Tomoki (who we call Tommy) greeted me. He had neat brown hair, and green eyes. He reminded me of my younger brother… but nicer… and respectful.

"Hey Tomoki. What are you doing here?" I replied. Apparently, he also made friends with my little brother and I'm afraid that would be a bad influence on him. "Clearly we were playing a video game before you came in." Shinya snapped.

"Hey! Watch your tone little one." I retorted as I walked over to the kitchen counter to check the mail that came in that day. I shuffled through a couple of junk mail, but before I put the stack of mail down, I saw one with my name on it with an emblem seal on it with the letters "W.L.A." on it. Before I could read it, my brother tugged on my trousers to get my undivided attention.

"Hey brother, you think I can have some ice cream?"

I don't know why he bothered asking me such a random question. He was just going to disobey my authority as usual.

"No! Mom wouldn't want that, plus dinner is ready on the stove."

He grunted before he stomped off into our room along with Tommy (yep that's right we share a room). "Hey, Takuya! You wanna play with us?" Tommy asked with his head peeked out the doorway.

I reasoned with myself, knowing I had a lot of studying to do for tomorrow's exams. Of course without thinking, I justified why I deserved to join them anyways since I had little to no discipline whatsoever.

"Sure. What are you guys playing?"

"Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3! I just got it today!" he bragged, knowing I've been saving up to own one of my own.

"Man you always get everything first…" and before long I put the stack of mail down to go sit down beside them with a controller to play the fighting game with them.

"Sorry to burst your bubbles guys, but I came to win!" I bragged.

"Really? How bout we play for money?" Tommy said, raising the stakes.

My eyes narrowed in on Tommy and his boastful remark. He couldn't possibly be serious.

"How much?"

"2000 yen!"

"Deal."

Shinya glared at me knowing the code of conduct of the household. "Ooooo I'm telling. Mom said not to gamble!"

"I'll give you half."

"Deal!" he quickly betrayed his statement earlier.

-xxx-

After -what seemed like minutes- hours of playing I realized how much I sucked and how I was getting my butt handed to me by a bunch of serious butt handling dealers.

"How's your thumbs?" Tommy mocked as his thumbs deftly controlled the game piece.

"Just fine." I retorted.

Just then Mom and Dad came in through the door. "Takuya! Shinya! We're back and we brought groceries!"

Shinya darted for the door to greet the parents. My body on the other hand didn't move due to the fact I was busy duking it out against Tommy.

"Takuya! Did you hear us?" my Mom spotted us in our room.

"Yeah, Mom. I'll be there in a minute."

"Hi Mrs. Kanbara."

"Hello Tomoki!" She acknowledges him, "As for you young man if you don't get up already…"

"But mom, I'm gonna lose."

"If you don't help your brother with the groceries that game won't be the only thing you'll be losing, mister."

I turned my head for a split second to face her, but when I looked back, I had already lost… the game and my money.

Tommy sprang up, thrusting his fist in the air, "EYEAH! Where's my 2000 yen!"

(Way to go Tommy. Right in front of my mom and her rule of no gambling).

-xxx-

After I brought the groceries in, Tommy left to go home to his family along with the money he earned. Once that was over, I had dinner with my family, and went straight to my room to hit the books… literally. The time had long past for me to study, however, if I did now, I would be up all night, barely getting any well-rested sleep.

I made my way to my desk and pulled out my study booklet, the one I needed for tomorrow that was 3 inches thick.

"Takuya?" my dad knocked on the door. He was a tall man with long brown hair wrapped in a ponytail.

"Come in." I replied.

He walked in through the door as calm as a fox. "How's everything going?"

"Not so well."

He stood right next to me, silently reading the book over my shoulder.

"Its about the exam tomorrow isn't it?"

I nodded my head. He hit the nail on the head.

"I woudn't worry about it if I were you. You'll do fine." He said, comforting me in any way he could. Apparently he forgot about my previous scores when it came to tests.

"You really think so?" I said, agitated from stress.

"I don't think so… I know so."

His words were enough to put a warm smile on my face. He always knew how to encourage me, despite the overwhelming circumstances.

"But if you were to fail for whatever reason," there was a sudden change in his tone of voice, "Just know that when one door closes… anther one opens. That's what my dad use to tell me."

He left the room, leaving me with that thought to ponder on for the rest of the night. Perhaps he was right. Maybe I had nothing to worry about.

-xxx-

(**BGM:** Can't Go Back by Primal Scream)

On the morning of the day of the test, I sprang out of my bed. I nearly over slept with little than fifteen minutes to get ready, _including_ transportation down there and all I had were my two soccer-toned legs.

After my traditional morning rituals and finding something to were -my uniform being the only option- I ran downstairs in search for breakfast.

"I see your exams to day?" My mom said as she walked towards the door, for work.

"Yeah." I wolfed down a waffle with no syrup and chugged it down with orange juice.

"Bye Mom! Bye Dad!" I shouted as I left the house wishing my parents a nice day, as they wished me good luck.

I jumped over a few fences and hurdles like an Olympic sprinter, only to show up seconds after they started the tests.

"Sit down!" the test coordinator ordered me to a seat next to Kouji with Kouichi and Zoe nearby. As flustered as I was –having not much sleep the night before- I pull out my pencil from behind my ear and opened up the test booklet to begin answering.

"You may begin!" The coordinator announced and stared the clock.

I flipped to the first page and what I saw made no sense to me like an undecipherable code.

"I knew I should have studied longer." I said to myself. It was as If the test was in a foreign language. I glanced to my right to Kouji vigorously filling in answer blanks like a test answering machine.

My mind pondered on the fact I _probably_ wasn't doing so well. I had to make sense of this somehow or else I would end up failing. I began to compare math equations with something I could easily relate to in order to aid my horrible test skills. Soccer was the first thing that came to mind (after girls).

Even though the sport had no correlation to what I was doing at the moment, just the thought was relieving. It was as if soccer was my safe haven away from academics since it was the one thing I was good at. I was usually the first to be picked as captain as I played for our school team. I even remembered all the soccer games I attended. I was usually the one who scored the game winning point. I could even imagine all the fan girls chanting my name, as I would score the winning goal- TA-KU-YA! TA-KU-YA! TA-KU-YA!

I quickly snapped out of my trance and regained focus on the task at hand. _Slow__ and __steady__ wins __the__ race,_an old proverb I use to hear passes through my brain, but_ slow __and__ steady __can__ get__ you __killed _I added, which did not help the fact I had only…. TEN MINUTES TO ANSWER NINTY-NINE QUESTIONS! Where did all the time go?

I rushed through each problem like lightning mad, not carrying to check my answers twice. It was only a matter of time before I heard…

"PENCILS DOWN!" the coordinator announces in his unprejudiced deep voice.

All the students placed their pencils down with looks of worry, yet satisfaction on their faces… everyone except me.

The man took up my test booklet with a stern look on his face as if he knew that I did not do so well. I sat there imagining him waving his finger at me, disappointedly.

-xxx-

"So how'd you do?" Kouichi asked me. Him and the others were huddled around me with my head hung low and my hands jammed in my pockets. We waited outside for our test scores.

"How'd you think I did?" I replied.

"You did study right?" Kouji asked. It almost sounded like he was scolding me.

"Yeah, I did... I don't know. I just… goofed. And to think I stayed up all night for that thing." I shrugged and looked to the side dismissively.

"Don't worry about it. You probably did better than you think, knowing you and your dumb luck." Zoe teased with a genuine expression. Of course she had nothing to worry about herself since she always passed anything that came her way, including an invitation to this year's dance from the most popular guy of the school.

"Yeah, well we'll find out won't we." I said grudgingly. It was only a matter of time before the scores came out thanks to the speed of technology.

-xxx-

They finally posted the scores on the bulletin board for everyone to see. Yeah that's right… Everyone! Which means, if you failed miserably everyone would get to see it, no doubt.

The crowd of students were huddled around like a flock of geese scurrying for food at a nearby park. Mumbles of scores and names transferred through the air as people congratulated one another and cheered for their efforts. I could see groups of girls cheering with each other in a circle. Obviously they all were accepted.

"YES!" Kouji cheered triumphantly, discovering his name on the high ranks list.

"Good job brother, but it looks like I did better than you." Kouichi bragged, pointing at the records.

Kouji groaned, not liking the fact he came in second to his kin.

Zoe searched for her own score and was surprised, "Oh wow. I did better than I thought." She said innocently as she pointed at hers and was three places ahead of Kouichi.

"Not bad Izumi." Kouichi congratulated. I noticed him being such a gentleman of the whole situation. He couldn't possibly be pleased that she beat him _once__again_.

Well despite all the good remarks I was hearing from them, I too wondered and hoped that I made it on the list. I searched through each ranks hoping I would miraculously see my name in gold letters at the top, displayed in scrolling letters. As I approach the last few names, I realize the shocking yet unsurprising truth. My name never appeared.

"I didn't get in…"

"WHAT?" my friends shouted simultaneously.

"What do you mean you didn't get in?" Kouji rushed over to me.

"I mean… I didn't get in. I didn't pass. I failed. I'm a failure! I get NOTHING! I LOSE!"

"Man! That… that must suck!" Kouichi said, stating my obvious feelings.

"You mean you didn't get in?" Kouji asked, repeating what I just said.

"I DIDN"T GET IN, ALRIGHT!" I yelled, causing a stir in the atmosphere of celebration.

"Sorry to hear that." Zoe said with her words of comfort. Looks like she was wrong about my dumb luck.

I glanced at them before I looked away from their concerned eyes. "Its ok… I mean we all can't be smart right? It's not like I care or anything," I lied out of frustration.

"Don't say that!" Kouji yelled, knowing the fact that I secretly did care enough.

"He's right! We know you care." Zoe added. She suddenly looked frustrated.

Kouichi took his turn of cheering me up. "Besides don't look at this all wrong. You can apply at another school."

After a while my head cleared as I calmed down and took their advice. They were right; I could still apply somewhere else.

"I guess you're right." My head slightly rose up.

"Of course we're right." Kouichi wrapped his arm around my shoulder with a snarky smile, "Now whataya say you stop this nonsense and lets celebrate, even if you didn't make it in!"

The others agreed along with him. I couldn't stop them from being happy so I had to go cheerfully along with them.

-xxx-

We approached the same café I attended yesterday. This time it was all of us instead of just me. We all took a seat as Lilica came by, ready to take our orders for our celebration.

"Hello guys! How is everyone?" she asked.

"Fine!" we all shouted; I was lying though. Everyone mentioned how he or she past the entry exam, while I shrunk in my seat hoping no one would notice me sitting there.

"So what would you guys like?"

Everyone ordered what they wanted while I asked for a coke, the "usual" drink that "symbolizes" my happiness.

She left after she took note, leaving all of us alone to discuss whatever came to mind.

"So what are you going to do now?" Zoe asked. The twins were silent, waiting for an answer, which put me on the spotlight. *Spot light music*

I glanced at them nervously before I feigned a haughty laugh.

"Oh ahahaha. Don't worry about me. I'll figure it out somehow."

Suddenly on cue, JP and Tommy came through the noisy door. There classes must have let off early

"Hey guys." they both waived.

"Hey!" we all welcomed them to sit down. Now the whole gang was together.

"So how did you guys do?" JP asked, referring to the test. He must have been the hundredth person to ask that same question.

The rest of my friends bragged while I withheld any information of my failure.

"And what about you Takuya?" *da boomp* he just had to ask me.

Everyone fell silent, but this time they all were because they knew the answer, all of them except JP and Tommy.

"What?" JP looked at everyone, confused that he may of said something offensive.

"We probably shouldn't talk about it?" Zoe said, warning JP from further damages.

"Why? He passed right?"

There was an awkward silence, which answered his question.

"Oh… I see."

"Look can we just stop talking about it already and move on!" I exclaimed.

"Oh sure"

"Yeah"

"Whatever, you say man"

Everyone talked simultaneously to one another as if they were in one accord.

"Here are your drinks!" Lilica came by with our orders. That was when she noticed the solemn look on our faces. "What's wrong?"

I sighed audibly.

-xxx-

"If you don't succeed, try try again" an old adage I had heard before, and so I did just that… or did I?

After I hung out at the diner, I went straight home and that was when I saw my dad who was probably waiting for some good news. He was sitting in his big chair, in the dark. It was almost mysterious, straight out of a suspenseful movie. I could visualize him with a gun concealed in his pocket or behind a book so that once I tell him I failed, he would shoot me dead… but that's only an imagination haha *sigh*.

"So how'd you do?" he asked in a flat voice. I couldn't tell if he was elated or distraught to see me.

I swore I was going to die if I kept hearing that same question. It killed me to tell him how I really did since I couldn't sugar coat it anyway for a "safe landing" if you know what I mean.

"Well Dad… I didn't do so good…" hiding my face with the top of my head, I braced myself for an "I'm disappointed in you Takuya" or "No son of mine fails a test and lives in my house" or even a gunshot, but instead he remained silent which creeped me out even more.

"Sorry to here that…" he said, and walked off as if he didn't hear the disappointing news.

I stood there, shocked. I didn't know whether he was going to get his samuari knife he kept in his room for times like these or if he was going to cry. I figured it was the former statement.

"OH! By the way, you have mail on the counter. You _should_ check it out." I could hear a trace of assurance in his voice.

As ambiguous and confusing he was acting, I trudged over to the counter and saw the mail he was talking about. It was a little thick then the average mail. That was when I realized it was the same mail from yesterday that I forgot to open.

I looked at the front, which had my name and a medieval font design "W.L.A." emblem in the right hand corner on a symbolic shield. After ripping it open I read the letter that followed. My eyes widened with surprise. It was the school that I applied for a few months ago which my mom _made_ me apply for. I never thought in a million –no- a _billion _years that any school would take me. It wasn't till later down the letter of admission I realized I was accepted through a soccer scholarship. (Figures) But at least it was something to be proud of. I read to understand where this school was and my eye grew two times wider. It was overseas. _Just__ wait__ till __the__ others __hear__ about __this, _I thought. The idea of me studying far away slowly manifested in my mind. I was jubilant but nostalgic.

I took the mail and the brochure it came with into my room to read the rest of the requirements on behalf of attending this prestigious school. I didn't see him but my dad was outside the door smiling at me as if he were proud and knew all along.

It was just like he said. When one door closes, another one breaks open… or is stays open? No I think it was…ah whatever! All I know is that another door gets opened somehow. (So much for ending the chapter with a positive and profound phrase).

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**A/N:** Well there goes the first chapter. I hoped you enjoyed it thus far. If you noticed I had a few references here and there hehe. So far I've had to do a little research to understand and incorporate some of the Japanese culture, and I learned quite a bit. By the way, my heart and prayer goes out to the victims of the Earthquake/Tsunami, and I hope you come back stronger than ever. Yeah I know I'm late… very late.


	2. Day 1-2

**A/N:** and here's the continuation of the first chapter. Keep in mind these "days" aren't really real time sequential. They're the equivalent of chapters. And bear the long details in the story but I think I'm finally getting somewhere…

**Just a Day in the Life …**

**Day 1 (Part 2) **

**(Graduation and Beyond The Horizon)  
><strong>

"Abe Aki!" The Principal of our school honorably announced the first student's name to receive his diploma. It was the last day we would be considered students of junior high as the student body seated and filled an auditorium with a capacity of up to 3,000. I looked around and all I could see was a sea of black and gray uniform suits along with red ties in seats. We were all seated in alphabetical order according to our last names, waiting to be called on to receive our diploma.

On my right, Kouichi was seated next me. His last name was Kimura while mine was Kanbara. His legs were jittering due to how nervous he was. If he didn't stop at any moment he would have drilled a hole through the ground.

Several chairs down, I could see Zoe and Kouji seated apart since their last names were Orimoto and Minamoto. Kouji looked lethargic as if he didn't get enough sleep since he held his head in the palm of his hand. Zoe was busy keeping him awake, which I could imagine to be a gruesome job, waiting for your name to be called while jabbing your elbow in the side of a sleeping teenage boy.

Despite what I was seeing around me, I was going through an ordeal of such an imagination (Can't believe I used a big word). My mind threw just about every possible scenario of how this could all go horribly. I could go up there and receive the roll and walk off, unharmed, or I could also trip while going _up _the stairs. Another possibility was the fact that while I received my diploma, I stumble and fall on stage, which would be the most mortifying experience I would ever go through. And then there's the falling of the stage while leaving… and so on. If I'm lucky someone might jeer at me from the crowd.

To take my mind off the horrifying images, I looked over at Kouichi who hasn't said a single word since we got here.

"Hey buddy. You haven't said a single word. Are you feeling all right?"

He had a blank stair for a second before he realized I said something to him. "Hm? Oh I'm good haha. I'm just… peachy… hm"

_Peachy? _Who says that?

After his bizarre response we both simultaneously glance at the other two graduators. Kouji -finally awake- noticed us starring at him and Zoe.

I mouthed an "are you ready" to them. Zoe smiled and mouthed back "Yes" while Kouji yawned not giving a care. He wanted this to be over already so he could celebrate later and brag to anyone who was younger than him he's in high school, which was not true yet.

My eyes (with a mind of their own) traced back to Zoe in her white dress shirt complimented by her red tie. Her black blazer covered her article of clothing along with her short, plaid, black and white skirt, with black socks that came up to her thighs. As if in slow motion, she turned, facing me as her golden locks flowed down her petite shoulders. Her emerald eyes met mine for what seemed like an eternity. She gave me this peculiar look, wondering why I would be starring at her. To ease the awkwardness, I smirked, and she did the same. It was then and there I reminded myself what happened back in the Digital World about a year ago, in the library of Ophanimanon's Castle. I remember basically telling her I liked her, only to quickly rephrase it in such a way it wouldn't mean anything more than it already was by saying "as a friend". Then to add insult, I pretended I was sleeping to avoid any more awkward social behavior between us. I realized I was an idiot back then and still am today. She was beautiful… she _is_ beautiful.

And as these thoughts were running through my airhead, she pointed her eyebrows toward the stage, trying to tell me something… but what?

"KANBARA TAKUYA!" the principal called my name for the hundredth time, frustrated that I wasn't listening as always. By now everyone stared at me with curious looks.

In a frantic frenzy I quickly jumped out of my seat and tripped on one of the legs of the chairs. I knew I was going to eventually fall; I just didn't expect it to happen at my own seat.

My fellow classmates gawked and laughed at me as I stood up with a beaming red face as red as the tie I was wearing. Quickly scurrying to my feet, my eyes glanced over to Zoe to make sure she didn't see any of the "stupidness" that took place… but she did. She giggled with her hand over her mouth like most girls do if they wanted to be courteous while ridiculing you with their innocent laughter (the fiends!).

The situation could only get worse as the principal glared at me to get on the stage immediately to receive the diploma he was ready to shred with his bare hands.

-xxx-

"Hey, dude! Now that we've graduated, all the ladies will be checking us out!"

"Yeah dude! I'm feelin the love tuhuh!"

Two random students spoke loudly as they strolled out the school doors. They past us as we all laughed at their conversation. They needed a reality check.

Kouji thought this would be a good time to remind everyone the incident that happened with me earlier.

"Oh yeah, remember when Takuya fell out of his chair?"

"Oh yeah that was so funny!" Kouichi remarked with a chuckle.

I glared at the pony-tailed teen. "Oh very funny Kouji. I thought you sleeping huh?"

"I was because of how boring it was, but seeing you fall made the whole thing worthwhile."

My head was steaming. How dare he laugh at my misfortunes? There's too many of them to count.

"Its OK Takuya! We were all nervous." Zoe said, trying to make me feel adequate. She must of forgotten I noticed her laughing too.

"Gee thanks," I replied as I placed one hand in my pocket, carrying my rolled up diploma in the other.

Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, a mob of male students –all shapes and sizes- ambushed Zoe with flattering request and gifts of all sorts.

"Izumi let me have a picture with you!"

"Izumi, I got you some flowers!"

"Here's a nice box of chocolates!"

"SIGN MY FOREHEAD!"

Before long she was swarmed from every direction as the boys came with their ridiculous desires. The blond girl was overwhelmed as she nervously talked to each student individually.

She then stood on her tippy-toes to see us. "Um don't worry guys! I'll catch up with you guys later!" she said to us, right after another male ran up to her with an engagement ring.

"Oh wow! Who would of thought Zoe was so famous?" Kouichi joked.

"She's been quite popular through the year being student council and all." Kouji added to his brother's remark.

"Yeah… and to think she thought she couldn't make friends with anybody." Kouji replied.

I on the other hand stood in silence, almost jealous of the group of guys with raging hormones approaching Zoe. They didn't know her like I did over the course years. In fact, before anyone even noticed her the first day of class I already had a head start… apart from Kouichi and Kouji. But now as I looked at these guys all I could wonder was where did they even come from? Half of them I didn't even recognized. Did they come from another school?

"Say Takuya, what are you going to do now that we finished junior high?" Kouichi broke my train of thought with the question I had been avoiding all this time. I had to come up with an answer, quick. That's was before it dawned on me that I never told them about my admission letter I got from a school across foreign seas.

"Oh, well… I'm going to an academy… somewhere." For some reason I was reluctant to give them full details. I was afraid of the fact that I would not be seeing them anymore and thought it was best they didn't know the full details.

"So what's it called," Kouji asked with disbelief across his face, "This school does have a name right?"

"Of course it does! It's called um… W.L.A."

"I never heard that school before." Kouji remarked, pondering over the abbreviations. His brother looked at me with perplexity. "Is it that one school next to the nursery?"

"NO! No." I replied.

"What does it stand for?"

"Did you make it up?" Kouji interrupted.

"NO, I didn't make it up! I'm not sure what the letters stand for either."

"Do you even know if it's a school then?"

"YES… I think."  
>We all stood there staring at each other with skepticism clouding our eyes. They finally gave up interrogating me and let me go my way.<p>

"Well good luck to you." Kouichi replied.

"Yeah I guess we'll see ya around then," his twin added as he turned around to head the opposite direction. How naive they were.

"Where you guys going?" I asked.

They both turned around in synchronized timing.

"We're going to celebrate. My parents promised us they would take us out to eat, yesterday." Kouichi explained.

"Can I come?"

"Sorry… family members only." Kouji mocked.

I steamed. "So I see! Just because we're graduated now you think you all are all grown up and can't be seen with me huh?"

"Pretty much…" Kouji teased me, "I mean, what can I say. You're not on my level."

He smirked after his last remark, and I returned a pompous one of my own, but in good humor since we were always competitive towards each other. We made a competition out of anything like competing over competing.

'Alrighty then! Have fun!" I waved them goodbye and watched them leave the school premises. My hand stood still in front of me as I waved, in contrast to the size of their disappearing bodies from my perspective view. This was truly goodbye.

-xxx-

I told myself that not telling anyone about me leaving the country would be easier on everyone since they wouldn't see it coming. Of course they would wonder, but soon enough they figure it out that I must have moved on with my life.

Then again, what was I say? These are my friends I'm talking about. They had a right to know.

As I wandered down an abandoned familiar alleyway, my foot crashed into a soda can, knocking the metal cylinder several meters ahead of me. The piece of metal landed right in front of a young girl standing not too far away from me. Her golden locks flowed in the gentle autumn breeze that graced by as she breathed heavily as if she were running away from a troubled past. Her piercing green eyes stared into my blunt brown ones, filled with anxiety yet anticipation.

(BGM: **She****'****s ****Like ****the ****Wind**, by Patrick Swayze)

It was Zoe and she looked flustered. She had a box of chocolates and a bouquet of flowers in both of her hands, which she got from the mob of boys.

I then realized I didn't get anything for her as a departing gift.

"I had to runaway from them…" she said to me, referring to the group of unrelenting guys from earlier. She was still catching her breath while I stared back with no response.

"So where's Kouji and Kouichi?" she asked still catching her breath.

"…They went to celebrate with their families."

She nodded. "Oh…I see… so what were your plans for celebration?"

(Dear reader: You might be reading this and saying, "Hey dude, now's your chance to tell her how you feel!" but for some reason my mind never thought of it."

My tongue tied up on me since I didn't have a response. "Well I was… I was going to… maybe I…"

She giggled with her eyes closed at my wretched attempt at speaking. I tend to have that effect on girls.

"I see you haven't made plans yet." She walked closer to me with small steps.

I bobbed my head as a reply while nervously scratching the back of my neck.

"Looks like your hands are full," I said, diverting the attention away from me. It was my best attempt at small talk.

"Yeeah, the guys kinda got carried away. Even…" she showed me her hand, emphasizing the ring finger, "One of the guys gave me a ring. He said if he could he'd marry me right on the spot."

My eyes widened from the last sentence. "Oh really?"

"Yeah."

"Would you marry him?" I asked anxiously. I hoped she didn't detect the urgency in my voice as she dubiously looked at me.

"Of course not. I don't even know the guy."

"But you kept the ring… so that has to mean something."

"Hey… a ring is a ring. This is probably worth a lot."

"Oh…I see. Eh-heh… I guess. I don't know why I asked that." My eyes darted away from her, avoiding eye contact. I always seemed to get nervous around her more when we are alone, which rarely happens.

As we stood there, a quick crazy thought entered my mind that I should spontaneously kiss her right on the spot. No one was watching and it would be just the two of us… (_Building __castles __in __the__ sky_).

As if she read my mind she got even closer… real close. Like invasion-of-personal-space close.

"You know you never told us in detail what you were going to do after graduation."

"Oh yeah… about that…" I paused dramatically, "I got admitted to a school after all."

"_Really_? Congrats. Which one is it?" (Ring the ceremonial bells)

I paused again, lingering the suspense.

"Its some school called W.L.A." I muttered.

Her left eyebrow arched farther than her right. "What's that stand for?"

"Heh-heh… Kouji asked me the same thing earlier. I don't know."

Once again her face changed to a dubious look. "You mean you don't know the name of the school you'll be going to?"

I laughed nervously.

"Where's it even located?"

With agitation, I chuckled again. "It's out of the country."

"What?"

"Yeah… several miles over seas to be exact." I realized I gave her more information than I wanted to.

"So…" she stopped her self for a second thinking about the near future, "So that means we might not see you for a long time."

"Uh-yeeah… I guess so."

She gazed up at me with her piercing eyes that could see deep into my soul, knowing this would be the last time she'd see me.

"Did you tell anyone else?"

"No… just you." I simply mumbled. That had to mean something to her right?

"Oh…" she said, waiting for her next words to come to her mouth, "I guess this is… goodbye."

"Yeah. I guess." I replied while fidgeting with the rolled up diploma in my hand.

In an instant she dropped the gifts in her hand like they were dirty laundry and reached her arms around my neck, pulling me in for an unsuspected, welcoming, passionate hug.

"I'm going to miss you Takuya," she sniffed loudly with misty eyes.

With shock, my hands hovered over her lower back, hesitant to wrap them around her slender body. She glomped me out of nowhere without any warning, but my hands finally clasped around her, pulling her in for a warm departing hug of my own.

"I'm going to miss you too, Izumi…" my voice quivered a little. I wanted this moment to last forever till we froze into a memorial statue somehow. This was going to be tough, leaving without having a single regret of leaving now that Zoe was opening up to me this way.

When we finally let go –which felt like an eternity- she brushed her hair aside, unveiling her misty eyes.

"You know there's no need to cry, Zoe. I can still call you guys… send post cards… I'll do whatever so you guys won't miss me as much."

She hiccupped a smile.

Realizing I had to get home –as much as it killed me to leave her- I walked past her slowly as she stood motionless. With hesitation she turned around hastily as her voice filled with anticipation while she tried to speak.

"Takuya I-"

My foot halted and turned around on heals to hear what she had to say. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought she was going to say _those_ three little words that mean so much.

"I-I… I wish the best for you!" she stuttered, her cheeks blushing while she looked towards the ground.

Responding to her wishes, I smirked. "Thanks…oh and by the way…" I reached for the second button on my blazer and yanked it off its thread. With my adept hand, I tossed it behind me and watched her catch it like a micro sized frisbee, with both her hands. She opened them to see what it was and smiled up at me.

"For all our memories!" I replied as I gave her a charismatic thumb up and a warm smile.

She beamed at me as if I had told her "the secret to life and the pursuit of happiness", and then watched me turn around and walk away into the distance… never to be seen again.

-xxx-

[_About __a__ month __later__…_]

"Takuya! Hurry up! The bus is waiting!" My mom cried out as I ran out of my room. It was time for me to travel to my new school and there was a charter bus waiting to take me to the airport… in style. I had packed a luggage full of "necessities" along with my backpack and a carry on which was waiting for me at the front door.

I hadn't seen my friends for long time now, so I did not know what they were doing. Perhaps they were on vacation somewhere.

As I came out of my room I brushed my hair to keep it from looking too messy. I was wearing my black T-shirt with a familiar red Japanese symbol, much like the yellow shirt I wore back in the digital world. I had on my favorite pair of khakis, and black and white vans sneakers. I placed my red short-sleeved dress shirt over my black shirt, leaving it unbuttoned to expose my masculine torso.

I walked down the hallway and saw mom and dad waiting for me. Of course my mom was just about ready to burst to tears as my dad comforted her like he always did whenever I displayed a new sign of growing up.

"Oh my baby! He's all grown up!"

My dad wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"Mom… please stop crying. I may be far away but I'll call you whenever I can and plus I'll write too."

"Yeah, but I won't get to hug you like I am about to right now." And she did, hugging the life out of me as if she were going to lose me to child custody officers.

"Don't worry mom… I'll be alright. I'll be fine." I smiled as I hugged her back.

With that, she finally let go and let my dad have his turn at squeezing the life out of me as well. I think he shattered my vertebrae.

"Son, I'm proud you made it this far, so DON'T disappoint us! You hear?"

I nodded, submissively, "Of course Dad. I'll make you proud. You and mom, both."

We hugged it out for another few minutes before my little brother interrupted us.

"OK mom and dad. Can _we_ go already?"

My head perked up to the word "we".

"What do you mean _we_?" I barked, hoping he was joking.

"Didn't you hear Takuya? Shinya got accept to the same school as well." My Mom informed me at the last minute.

"Whaaaa?" This was a complete shock to me. Perhaps a horrible prank.

"Yeah, they have a junior high to college level program. Didn't you read that in the brochure." My Dad added.

Apparently I didn't come across any of that. I must have skipped it or something… or had a short mini coma.

"But since when did he get accepted?"

"On the same day you did, dummy." My brother said while insulting me at the same time.

My mouth was still gaped open and at this rate a fly would fly in it at any subtle moment.

"And you didn't tell me?"

"I did, but you must have been sleeping or not paying attention."

I never recalled him telling me so.

"Well I guess its time for both of you to go now. You can discuss this on your exciting journey." My mom said trying to stop herself from crying anymore.

"Oh and here. Take this with you." My father handed me an envelope, "Its money for all your expenses just in case."

I smiled at the thoughtful gift and how it would greatly help me in the near future.

"Thanks Dad."

My Mom suddenly bawled some more as she tried to keep it together. My parents hugged Shinya and led us to the door, where I was overcome by another nice surprise.

"HEY TAKUYA!" my friends shouted… they had come to wish me goodbye, and somehow my parents knew about this.

"Oh h-hey guys! What are you all doing here?"

"Zoe told us that you were leaving the country for school. So we thought we'd drop by to say goodbye." Kouichi said, informing me of their discovery.

"Yeah, how come you didn't tell us you were going to school overseas, man?" Kouji asked with a stern expression.

"Eh-heh… I guess… I didn't want to worry you guys."

JP wrapped his strong arm around my neck to give me a rough hair rub. "Dude! Don't you ever think about leaving us without telling us, you hear?"

"Yes." I gagged.

Suddenly the rest of the guys decided to give me a group hug. Even Shinya.

"We're gonna miss you man." Kouichi moaned.

"Be cool. Stay in school," JP said, giving me recycled advice he had apparently heard himself over his sixteen years of living.

"Remember you promised you'll stay in touch with us." Zoe reminded me.

"Yeah and don't forget to take care of your little brother." Tommy also reminded me of the sworn duties that bestowed upon me.

They let go of me and stared at me as if I was a man on a mission to the moon, to break grown and see things no man has ever seen before. During the whole departing, I didn't notice her but even Lilica was there also. She was behind the other guys watching what was taking place.

"You guys brought Lilica too?"

"Actually I came on my own." She smiled as she reached in her bag she brought with her, "I brought you a parting gift."

She revealed a coffee mug… even though I don't drink coffee.

I received it from her like a birthday gift.

"Thanks Lilica… I'll make sure… I'll drink from it as soon as I can."

The bus honked its horn, waiting impatiently for me to get on bored already. The moment we were all waiting for had finally arrived and I was feeling unsure and somewhat depressed. I brought my luggage in the cargo space and helped Shinya bring his onboard like a good big brother would.

"I still can't believe you're coming with me so don't slow me down." I scolded him.

"I won't _big __brother_." He nudged me with a mischievous grin, "After all, I'm not going to let you have _all _the fun."

Before long we finally got in the bus as it drove us off to the airport. Once I got to a seat, I waved out the window to all my friends and family until I could not see them anymore, tears filling most of there eyes.

"Takuya…" my little brother started to ask, "Are you nervous?"

"Of course I am." I said. There was no way I could lie about my feelings at this point.

-xxx-

(BGM: **Far ****Away ****From ****Where ****You ****Are**, by Lifehouse)

As we arrived at the airport, we waited for an hour before we could depart for our flight. After getting on board the plane, we took off into the sky to my (Shinya: and Mine too) new destiny.

The plane hovered several thousand feet in the air. As I looked out the window, I noticed how truly magnificent the sight was sailing among the clouds. After that amazement, I reached for my ticket to see if this was all real and it still was. I searched through my bag to read the schools brochure for more info until I dozed off to a peaceful slumber.

-xxx-

"Thank you for flying with International Airlines. We hope you enjoyed your destination as you depart the aircraft cargo in a single manner. Thank you." A female voice loudly blared over the intercom, but it wasn't enough to wake me up.

Shinya shook me awake so we could leave and get our luggage and see where we would go from there. I was full of jet lag from the long flight and wasn't sure if I could function properly.

By the time we received our cargo and exited the gate, we found our selves in a massive mall like area with different shops and a diverse amount of people. We stopped near a small restaurant to grab a bite then made our way to the streets in order to catch a taxi.

-xxx-

"We're here… good luck!" the cab driver said after I paid him some of the money my farther gave me. We unloaded the cab of our stuff.

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"We'll from the amount of rides I've don't for to this place, by the next day people want out."

My eyes widen. He couldn't possible be serious.

"Catch you later!" the cab drove off, expecting to hear from us again. Could it be that tough here? Maybe I got myself into something deep.

Before us was a large steel gate about ten feet high, and behind it was the structure of a five story building the size of a palace. Its outside paint was burn orange bricks with a black concrete roof. It was very fancy and had a medieval castle theme to it.

"Are you going to ring the bell already?" Shinya snorted.

I glared down at him, "Don't rush me." On the gate's lock was a keypad with numbers along with a key whole and what seemed to be a scanner of some sorts. For a minute I thought I was going to a prison. I pressed on one of the buttons that said "Door Bell", and before long a security officer came up to the gate.

"Are you a visitor?" he asked in an unshaken stern voice.

"A-actually I'm a foreign student, me and my brother." I said, trying to seem confident.

"Let me see your letters of admission."

Shinya whipped his out quickly like a professional while I went through my luggage to find mine.

After I found it I handed it to the officer. He gave me a stern look. "You should be more organized like your brother."

I sheepishly smiled. There was no way Shinya was a better organizer than me.

After verify our existence, he let us through the gates into the premises.

We followed the tall man while another officer helped with our luggage to take them to a holding area.

'So this is the school?" I mumbled, astonished by the size of the structure.

"No this is the dormitory." The officer replied with a cold expression.

"Oh." I mumbled, realizing these guys must get paid not to smile.

We entered a separate building called "Head of House" that led to an office where the head of admissions sat with his back turned to us.

"Sir, we have a new students."

The man turned around in his seat dramatically with his hands clasped together and his elbows in his lap.

"I see. Welcome young ones." The man himself didn't look too old himself. Perhaps he was in his late twenties, early thirties with a professionally cut short black hair that sat on his head. The black framed glasses on his face shielded his squinty eyes.

I simply waved while Shinya followed suit.

The man finally stood up to greet us in his black suit with an orange dress shirt underneath and a black tie. He held his hand out for us to shake and we did so, before we sat down.

"Its nice to finally meet you Takuya." The man greeted.

"Me?"

"Yes."

It came to me as a shock that he would address me by my name. I guess I'm not use to grown ups talking to me like as if I'm their buddy.

"What about me?" Shinya butted in.

"You too Shinya." The man acknowledged him.

"I hope you find this place fitting for your future studies."

"Um sure Mr… Mr" I looked at his name plate on his desk.

"Just call me Mr. Hitoyoshi." He beamed. It seemed like all the cheerfulness was sucked out of all the officers at the campus and injected in to this man. It was impossible for him to keep a serious face.

So moments later he had us fill out a survey for compatible roommates since Shinya and I would be living in separate dorms. Due to the fact my brother was a minor he was going to live in the junior high dorms while I would live in the upper classmen dorms, and boy that was a relief.

"Alright! Mr. Kanbara… perhaps I'll hear from you some other time."

I nodded before I made my way out the door to the dorm rooms. They had already delivered our luggage to our assigned rooms, ready for us to unpack.

"Looks like you won't be bugging me little guy," I joked.

"That's too bad…" he shot a sarcastic remark.

It still felt like a dream to me, being here at this mysterious school. For all I know I could be entering a secret society of people who have no lives and are unknown to the public. This people could be a secret cult of Ninjas or assassins that sleep by day yet kill by night. They probably would take me captive and never let me see my friends or family again. But the only thing that discredited my theory was the sight of several normal looking male students walking in and out of the dormitory. Most of them were wearing their burnt orange and black uniforms, forming their cliques and beating each other up.

I could feel all eyes were on us as we walked by as if we were complete strangers from a distant land, which we were, technically. Classes were about to start next week and students were returning from their summer vacations. From what I heard I already missed orientation week.

-xxx-

After I exited the elevator (yes they have an elevator) I walked to my room number 217. I could hear a cacophony of laughter, demands, and small talk being made throughout the hall from a multitude of students. I felt so small in such a large place of people. I almost didn't want to stand out and cause attention for myself.

I discovered that I was going to be a freshman this year which was such a "doozy". I realized the upper classmen get to live in the upper floors while the lower classmen had the lower floors.

I opened the door to my room with the key that was given to me and stepped inside. I saw four beds -and two of them were bunk beds-, a desk, few chairs, cupboards, a mini kitchen, and a bathroom (That was a close one. I almost thought there wasn't one), and a window view of the tree's outside. The place was well furnished, while still leaving enough space to personalize the room. It was like living in an apartment with many responsibilities.

I saw my luggage and unpacked each one, making myself at home. I was the only one with the whole room to myself at the moment. It seems they didn't find any roommates that were compatible for me… yes that's right, "for me".

After I placed my clothes in the closet, I found one of my car posters of a red Mitsubishi Eclipse and placed it on the wall. I was making my self at home already, but I still had that panging feeling about home in Shibuya. I miss the guys already.

I lied out on the middle bed and looked up at the ceiling, deep in thought. This was my new home now and I was anxious for what the future held.

(Ending Song: **Dare You To Move**, by Switchfoot)

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**A/N:** Yeesh! It looks like Takuya finally made it. I tried to make this as realistic as possible. I'm still planning out the story to see how it will turn out so stay patient cause all I'm doing is "setting up" right now.

By the way the whole button thing between Takuya and Zoe is something I came across in another anime I've watched and in my research. It's an old tradition in Japan where the male student gives his second button to a female to express his feelings for her and to symbolize their memories throughout the school year. It's also a form of a "confession". To me, I think its funny yet sweet. Ahem… enough of the lovey dovey stuff… and don't judge me… meh-heh


	3. Day 2-1

**A/N:** Bare with me as you read this chapter. It's a bit long and slow. Technically this would be day three, but who's counting… oh wait me.

* * *

><p><strong>Just A Day In The Life … <strong>

**Day 2**

**(New Guy)  
><strong>

Ever get that feeling, that you're alone in a crowd of people. Well I do all the time. It's been a week since I've been here at WLA and I can honestly say I don't fit in. Not only did they not give me any roommates, but whenever I pass a group of people, they point and whisper. I'm even referred to as the "New Guy". How's that for a nickname.

Over the week I've been in my room eating noodles from a cup fresh out of the microwave due to family exile and inability to cook for myself. I've also done more productive things like… memorizing where things were. Things like the cafeteria, the restroom, the lobby, the outside court, and my room. I also discovered the girls dormitory was next door to ours, in another separate building, a few blocks away. (Such ground breaking discoveries I must say.)

So today was Sunday and tomorrow was going to be my first day in class at this school, and I was extremely nervous on making a good impression (Like I already have).

-xxx-

Later in the day, I received a packaged about the size of a coffin. It was from the school and it laid at the front of my door just for anyone to take. (At least I knew how well their security was)

I kicked the box into my room and settled down on my bed. I opened the box like a large present, excited to see what was inside. There were articles of clothing in assorts of black, white, and burnt orange. Turns out it was my uniforms for the school year. One was a jet black seifuku style uniform trimmed with burnt orange which is basically a military style kind of outfit for men. It was the same style of uniform I've been accustomed to at Shibuya. The next was a nice and crisp burnt orange blazer that came with a white dress shirt, a black tie, and black slacks. Last but not least there was another outfit of a white short-sleeved dress shirt and a burnt orange vest. Near the bottom of the box was another box with black dress shoes and another pair of indoor black sneakers for the school halls.

From all this I concluded they wanted us to have an array of outfits to choose from throughout the year. I also saw a folder with an itinerary of the school hours and a map for new students like me. There was also my scheduled classes for tomorrow. My homeroom class was English Literature with a teacher named Mrs. Avery. I never really had a female teacher so I looked forward to it. I placed my clothes in the closet, ready to be displayed tomorrow.

-xxx-

(Later that day…)

Just as the whole dorm was about to go to sleep a loud whistle blared throughout the halls like a siren. A flurry of footsteps could be heard like cows being hoarded indoors. I ran outside my door in my maroon plaid pj bottoms and a muscle shirt, trying to see what the fuss was about. Right down the hall, I saw a stern man in an officer outfit, blowing his whistle. The students lined up in their sleepwear like soldiers.

"Alright Sissies! Another Year, Another Introduction! As you know, my name is Mr. Colonel, BUT I am Sgt. Colonel to you all, and you will respect my Au-thor-it-y!" the man addressed himself as he paced down the hall like an officer doing his nightly rounds. His gravel voice gargled throughout the halls of the veteran and newcomer students. He was a middle aged man with peppered gray hair and a mustache. He was a man who had seen many things in his time.

"Now LISTEN UP! I run a TIGHT SHIFT around here and I like this place to look clean in tip top shape YOU HEAR ME!"

He was right in front of me, giving me a cold stair. I didn't know whether to smile or keep a stern face.

"AND WHO ARE YOU?"

"Um my-"

"SPEAK UP SON!"

"My name is Takuya!"

"LAST NAME?"

"Kanbara!"

A couple of students cackled.

"Alright then new guy! Welcome to West Legacy Academy!"

He slapped me on the shoulder… really hard to the point I almost fell over.

"As for all of you, you already know how I do things around here! Curfew is strictly 2200 hours and lights out at 2300 hours! I don't want any horsing around here at night. You will have your room's cleaned spick and span EVERY morn-ING, and I will check every week to make sure! I might even do surprise inspections. NO EXCEPTIONS!"

The students moaned in unison.

"DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!"

"SIR YES SIR!"

"Good!" the man started making his way back, "As your head of house officer, that is all! Now get out of my sight!"

Everyone made there way back to their rooms, caring on with their conversations. I on the other hand stood there in a state of bewilderment.

"You too new guy!" Mr- (I mean) Sgt. Colonel said to me. I might as well have had a name tag with "New Guy" written on it since no one was courteous enough to memorize my name. Tomorrow was going to be a tough day, I could tell.

-xxx-

(**BGM:** The Blues, by Switchfoot)

It was 7:00 am and I was awake earlier than usual in my lonely room. My mind went through a plot point over my whole journey here. The first thing to come mind was my friends and the fact that they had already started school in Shibuya without me being around. I wonder what they could be doing right this instant?

My eyes skimmed along the objects of my room. The clock remained silent, the beds remained empty, and the window was open with a slit to let some cool autumn air in. Before long I was back asleep again…

-xxx-

*_RIIIIING* *RIIIIING* *RIIIIING_* "WAKE UP SLEEPY HEAD!"

My head shot off my pillow with alarm and disorientation. My brain was spinning as well as my optical focus.

I abruptly slammed the off button on my alarm clock due to how annoying it was. Before I placed my head back down on my pillow to get a few extra minutes of sleep, I realized I didn't have a few extra minutes to spare. It was 8:15 am and I had fifteen minutes to get to my first day of class…swell.

-xxx-

In record timing, I finished my morning rituals and rushed out my door, crashing into inanimate objects. My mind instantly flashed back to the warning Sgt. Colonel gave us about keeping tidy. I didn't have time for that though. It would just have to wait till I get back.

I rushed into the dorm halls like a student late for class. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one that was running late as I ran into a group of three students. My body collided into one of them head on, sending us both to the ground.

"Hey DUDE! Watch where you're going!" the male scolded me as his buddies helped him to his feet. He was my height (5'11") but his hair gave him a few more inches. He had spiky dark brown hair and stone cold hazel eyes. Based on his body type I could guess he was either a lean football player or an athlete of some sort. He had the face of a douche bag frat boy.

I gently rubbed my head as I slowly rose to my foot. "Sorry, buddy. I woke up late so I can't tell which way is up or down…"

"SO? Does it look like I care? You screwed up my morning vibe!"

"Yeah does it look like Kyle cares about your disabilities." One of the henchmen spoke on Kyle's behalf. I could immediately tell he was a suck up.

"No…I was just saying…"

"I don't want to here it dude! Are you some sort of noobie freshman anyway?"

"Actually…well yeah." I said, hoping I sounded confident in my self.

"Hmm- I haven't seen you before." He looked at his two brown-nosing friends, "Have you seen him before?"

"OH no Kyle! I've never seen him."

"I think he's one of those foreign students."

They both eyed me for ten seconds before they exchanged glances. Perhaps I had to pass some sort of visual test with these guys.

"Well, dude. Stay out of our way… and whats your name anyway?"

My mind froze with good reason. If I told him my true name, he would probably memorize it and use it against me in later encounters. If I told him a fake name then he wouldn't know my real name, until he found out sooner or later that I lied to him.

"Well do you have a name?"

"Takuya Kanbara!" just like that I revealed my whole identity. I might as well have given him my social security number and birth certificate.

"Well then, Takuya Kanbara! Next time you get in my way. I won't be so nice." With that he shoved me aside and went his way. The young man and his friends walked off to go to school, leaving me a nervous wreck as I readjusted the jacket on my seifuku.

"His name is Kyle Konnor. He's like the most popular guy on this floor. He's also captain of the varsity basketball, football, track, and soccer team." A random wimpy student walked by me as he laid upon me this important information. "You're lucky he didn't shove you in a locker… or a trash can."

The student finally sprinted off out the door. He probably was use to getting shoved in lockers by this Kyle Konner.

Despite how bad the vibes I was getting from Kyle, the good news was that he was the first person to refer to me by my name since I entered the dorms.

-xxx-

If you you've ever thought you were lost before, try navigating through a four-story building that's a bazillion acres wide. The school looked like the size of a small country. The clay colored bricks of the wall illuminated like fiery passion as the sun shined on them. The windows were just as nice as well. The building seemed about fifty years old, yet still new and vibrant due to how well the school staff kept the place looking nice. There was not a single particle of dirt on the campus.

As I stood before the entrance and the grand steps, students walked pass me to and fro, watching me to see if I had froze in time due to my gapping mouth and fixated expression towards the front entrance. It was extravagant.

Each step I made up the steps felt a like lifetime journey towards destiny and beyond. My heart thudded in my chest with each step as if it wanted to escape my rib cage prison. I was certain I was going to fall over from a heart attack and cause a scene, while paramedics come and throw me out on a stretcher. I was so focused on getting up the steps I didn't pay much any attention towards any of the students that were whispering as I walked by.

"_Who is he?"_

"_Who is that guy"_

"_He's cute…"_

"_I don't know… he's not my type."_

"_I think he's one of the foreign students."_

"_Or worse… a spy._

"_He sucks!"_

Yep, these were just a glimpse of the conversations I was hearing along the way up the stairs.

-xxx-

As I entered through the building, the hallways were crowded with a flurry of black, white, and burnt orange suits pacing all around me. I fumbled through my schedule, looking for my homeroom only to eventually smack into one of the students crowding the hallways. As our bodies fell to the floor, I realized that this was a déjà vu moment. I prayed that it was not Kyle and his goons as I tried to recover from the impact.

To my fortune and good will, it was not. In fact, it was a female student sitting in an up right position as she too recovered from the collision.

"I'm SO sorry!" I blurted out as I reached out to pick up her books (how cliché).

"Its OK. I should have been aware of someone as clumsy as you."

I looked up at her to tell whether or not she was being serious or funny. She was being funny… I think.

(Funny Moment Music: Abrazeme Muy Fuerte by, Mark Anthony)

As my chocolate brown irises gazed upon her, I felt my cheeks burn ten degrees higher than usual. She had gorgeous long hair as black as a crow's feathers, and even toned brown skin. I believe she was of Spanish decent as my eyes met her brown orbs.

"Oh… heheh. I guess I am a cluts sometimes." I replied back, rubbing the back of my neck. Of course in my head I was thinking other wise. I'm definitely not a cluts.

We both stood up simultaneously still holding the same gaze until she finally looked away.

"I should be getting to class." She said as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She slowly walked passed me, then looked behind her back, "You should probably do the same, 'Clutsy Boy'."

She then disappeared into the sea of students like the mysterious girl she was, leaving me speechless. What just happened here? And did she just give me a new nickname?

-xxx-

"SORRY I'M LATE!" I yelled as I crashed the classroom doors, nearly stumbling over. I was five minutes late and my homeroom teacher, Ms. Avery, had already started class.

"Ah, You must be Takuya Kanbara, our new foreign student."

I was flattered by how she already knew who I was. In fact, I'm sure I was blushing madly at the moment.

"Um, yeah…" I muttered.

"Well class, everyone say high to our new student, Takuya..." she paused to recall my last name.

"Kanbara… Takuya Kanbara." I reminded her as I readjusted the neck of my uniform.

"HI TAKUYA!" the whole class chanted in unison. They sounded like a crowd of drone robots programmed by the teacher, herself.

"Alright Takuya, and just have a seat in the third row next to the window."

I slowly walked over to the desk that I was destined to be with for the rest of the year. I could feel all eyes on me for the five seconds it took for me to walk over there. As my butt graced the seat, the class finally went back to normal while the teacher resumed everyone's attention. Might I add that she mainly had the guy's attention the most due to the fact she was very, and I mean VERY attractive.

She was Caucasian with auburn hair with a hint of red in the mix. She also wore those cliché black framed glasses you see female teachers wear in the movies, but for some reason they looked genuine on her. Today she had on a white long sleeved blouse with a tight black pencil skirt. And to top it all off, she had the most pleasant alto voice in the entire school. It was as soothing as listening to the ocean on a warm beach in the summer afternoon chanting your name.

"Alright class, turn to chapter one as we review over the conception of literary devices and…"

And so she went on and on talking about literature while I took the time to memorize my classmates' faces. As I looked around the room, most of the students didn't seem please to know they had a new student. Even one kid was giving me the evil eye the entire time.

I continued analyzing the room and noticed there were empty desks that were available for me to switch to just in case I felt uncomfortable with my surrounding classmates. But despite all this, my mind pondered on the most important thing to me that actually mattered…lunch.

-xxx-

(Lunch Time…)

_There's no time like lunch time_, I thought. And so lunchtime finally came around and I made my way into the cafeteria. The place was like an extravagant dynasty filled with peasants scavenging for food. There were rows and circles of clothed tables furnishing the area. It was like dining in a high-class restaurant, without the tinted lights and lighted candles. The air was filled with a harmony of aromas, ambushing my nose all at once, which triggered my stomach to growl. It had been a long day so far and I was ready to eat anything.

There was a huge line in front of the restaurants called Mifflin's Burgers. It probably was the most popular item in the entire school due to how long the lines were.

I grabbed my tray of food and walked over to the dining area to find a seat. My eyes glanced over each table, I noticing the certain "cliques"; those cliché groups of people sitting amongst each other like family.

There were the nerds and geeks laughing up a storm over some inside joke about Star Trek… or Star Wars. There were also the emo kids being… emo over how dreadful life was (Do I need to go further?) Then there was a table right across from them that was more colorful. It was the artsy table filled with teens that had an eye for art. I could tell by the way they assorted their food together to display mosaic scenery. Not too far away from them were the Show Choir and Band group. Most of them sang while they ate while the other talked about their next concert performing for the school. But everyone knows you can't go through a list of school cliques without mentioning the top of the top of the food chain… that's right the Cheerleaders and Jocks. These two were made for each other. Just imagine what sports would be like without the cheerleaders. None of the athletes would know when to go "GO GO GO!"

So after making a life long debilitating decision of where to sit, I made my way to an empty table and sat down all by myself. At this point I was willing for anyone to come sit next to me, even if they had negative infinity _cool_ points. And so I sat there enjoying one of Mifflin's famous burgers. Just me and Mifflin's burger.

-xxx-

(End of School)

(_DIIING! DOOONG! DIIING! DOOONG, DIIING! DOOONG! DIIING! DOOOOOOOONG!_)

The bell rang in its harmonic and infamous Westminster Chimes which I came to familiarize myself with. School was finally over as herds of students escaped through the school doors to either go back to their dorms or spend the night out partying. Seeing that I had few options, I decided to go ahead and make it back to my room and sleep for the rest of the day. I didn't see any use doing my assignments due to my block schedule. I was notoriously the number one procrastinator back at Shibuya Junior High… but I'll tell you that story later on some other day…

Along the way home I walked by the girl's elegant dormitory. It was pleasant and nice just like ours, nothing different except for the gender that occupied the rooms. The majority of girls that were walking behind me giggled and discussed matters while others had a good time yelling and screaming weird males followed their girlfriends to the front of the door and kissed them goodbye as they watched them go inside their dorms. Very few males have entered into the dormitory with their girlfriends since it was considered taboo. This has left the guys to wonder… what really goes on behind those closed doors.

Of course I would never find out unless I did some *cough *cough snooping of my own (not that I would do such a thing. What do you guys think I am? A Stalker?)

As my foot stood in front of the gates to my dorm, my ears could pick up the sound of kids yelling about and cheering. My head automatically shifted in the direction of the sound coming from school children and in the mist was my little brother Shinya. It just so happens he already made a ton of friends on his first day and was blending well with the others.

Subconsciously and out of reflex I waved my hand to get his attention as I yelled his name. I felt slightly awkward realizing I was breaking the sacred "We-have-no-kin-relationship-as-long-as-we're-in-public" rule.

Realizing my presence, he shamefully acknowledged me with a half haggard wave of his own, and then dismissed himself from his group of new friends to come over and talk to me.

"What?" he asked with a blunt tone.

"Hey, buddy! How's it going so far?"

"Good…"

"I see. Those are _some_ great friends you made there." (I don't know why I emphasized "some")

"Yeah…"

"So how was your first day?"

"Eeeh… alright." (His first two word response.)

"Yeah I hear ya. It can be rough being the new guy."

"Huh?" he looked at me funny as if I spoke in pig latin. "What do you mean rough? I've had a blast so far!"

Just like that the tone of the conversation took a sudden toll towards my self-esteem.

"Everyone here was interested and wanted to know where I came from. Some of them I even exchanged phone numbers with, not to mention a girl."

The kid had only been to school for one day and he was Mr. Woopty-Freakin-DO-DAH-Hotshot. Getting hugs and cheers left and right. They practically threw him a parade by the sound of his interesting first day.

"In fact, I don't think I can be seen with you or else people will start thinking we're brothers. If you're already having it bad this far, I need to scram before it rubs off onto me. I can't let you blow this for me with your bad mojo.!" With that he took several cautious steps back and sprinted off into the building, making sure no one saw him with me just earlier.

Brother indeed.

-xxx-

"Hi Mom. Hey Dad." I spoke into the phone piece of my cell phone as I walked towards my room.

"Hey, how's it going son?" My dad replied. His voice fizzled through the speaker.

"Its…ok. In fact, its great!"

"Oh Takuya, are they treating you like dirt over there?" my mom blurted through the phone in an overly concerned voice.

"Um… no mom-"

"Oh you poor thing. They are giving you a rough time aren't they. Do you need us to send you your favorite dish to cheer you up?"

"Uh, no mom. I'm fine, really."

"You don't sound fine." She replied, knowing the patterns of my voice extremely well.

"Yeah, that's because I have a ton of homework and projects to finish." I exaggerated a bit.

"Hm, is that right?" my dad replied.

"NO its wrong and cruel punishment!"

"Takuya! Use your indoor voices. We don't want people thinking we raised a lunatic."

"Oh wow… thanks Mom. I feel a whole lot better about myself than I already did."

"I thought you said everything was ok? You sound like you being abused!"

My mom could sometimes take things out of context way too drastically.

"I'm not being abused! It's just not easy fitting in with a bunch of strangers thousands of miles away from your home."

There was silence. An eerie silence before my Dad spoke up.

"Takuya, I know it may not seem great right now, but keep strong and believe me when I say this. It _will_ get better."

I paused before I answered. "I hope you're right…"

"He _is_ right! Your Dad knows these things. You should listen to him more often!"

"Alright." I chuckled, "Well I got to go."

"What about Shinya? Is he with you?"

"Actually he's in another room somewhere. They grouped us by our class."

"OK. I see. Keep an eye out on him for us ok." My mom requested.

"Will do Mom." (Like he needs my "expert" guidance.)

"We love you Son."

"I love you too guys."

"I think you will enjoy tomorrow." My Dad added as a sign of encouragement.

"…I hope so too."

With that I soon ended the phone call and placed the phone on my desk. I slipped out of my shoes and spread out on my bed to ease my troubled mind. Today was an awkward long day and I wanted it to be over… only so I could go through it again the next day.

As the back of my head hit the pillow, I began to doze off into a deep slumber, immediately. I slightly raised my eyelid at the sound of my phone vibrating, but ignored it due to how late it was. I was exhausted, and I needed to get some sleep.

-xxx-

(The next morning…)

_WAKE UP BZZZZZZZ! WAKE UP BZZZZZZZ! THIS IS AN ALARM!_

My alarm clock tried "_desperately"_ to wake me up but failed. It was 8:10 am, five minutes earlier than last time, but still not enough to get ready for school that starts in 20 minutes.

I aggressively smashed the snooze button, this time waking up. With a voracious yawn I took off to my bathroom to get ready for school. I probably would have to forgo showering just this once.

I slipped on my seifuku once again and straightened out the wrinkles in them with a tug at the hems.

"Today is going to be a great day…" I told myself with a monotone voice. I did not sound too convincing. I even jumped in the air thrusting my index finger towards the heavens as if that would justify my emotions.

Before I could make it out my dorm, I heard sounds of voices discussing matters outside my room. They were approaching my door.

"Dude, which room is it!" one voice asked.

My body went numb for a second. Not only did I piss off Kyle yesterday, but he also felt that need come to my room and do… whatever it was he was going to do to me.

"It's this one dumbass. 2-1-7! I swear you never read."

"I do read… just not numbers."

The voices were louder now and right at my door. Any minute they would bang on the door to see if I was still inside… or maybe it was a surprise inspection from Sgt. Colonel and Kyle ratted me out somehow that I kept my room unclean. Perhaps this was his revenge.

Whatever the deal was, I couldn't be seen; otherwise I might not make it to class with my limbs intact. The doorknob was locked so there was no way anyone could get inside-

"Alright were in!" A familiar voice exclaimed after rattling his keys.

After hearing the door miraculously open, I quickly went into hiding inside my closet.

"Wow. It looks like someone already moved in here." Another one of the voices said.

"I guess we have a roommate, already. I hope he's not a slob."

"I hope it's a girl."

"You idiot. Do you ever think about anything else other than girls… _and_ food?"

"Yes!"

"Plus, this is a 'Boy's' dormitory. I don't think girls would be living here."

"Hey, you never know. It could be coed."

The more this conversation went on the more curious I felt to peek the door open to see who these potential roommates were. They actually sounded familiar.

"Dude, there goes a Mitsubishi Eclipse Limited Edition Poster. There's only one guy we know who had one of those."

"You mean Takuya?"

Suddenly, my heart skipped a beat due to the fact I heard my name. My brain, my heart, and my body were rushing with emotions. There was only one-way to see for sure if my intuition was correct.

I suddenly opened the closet door and met face to face with three young men my age starring back at me as if they knew they were about to be ambushed by a ninja hiding in a closet.

"Takuya!" all three of them said, recognizing me, yet surprised. It was JP, Kouichi, and Kouji and they were all in my room. I slapped myself to make sure this wasn't a dream… it wasn't (and I slapped myself for nothing)

I guess, somehow, someway, I found myself home again.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Badumpa-pish! So walla. The third installment is here. I finally did.I kind off rushed the last parts because of how long it took me to retype and edit this. So anyways, what do you think about the twist at the end?

**Kouji:** It was quite obvious.

**Me:** That obvious huh?

**Takuya:** That's all you ever do is try to end the chapter with a twist.

**Me:** Geez, you guys are so mean when you're not scripted.

**JP:** [_randomly blurts out_] When do we get to see some girls in this story.

**Me:** Pipe down. In time my friend… in time.

Sheesh these guys can be a handful…

**Tommy:** [_Blows a harmonica_]


	4. Day 2-2

**A/N:** And now the story goes to third person point of view. Something tells me I'm forgetting an important detail in this chapter. By the way, growing up sucks...

* * *

><p><strong>Just A Day In The Life… <strong>

**Day 2 (Part 2)**

**(Company Has Arrived)**

"Dude! What the hell are you guys doing here?" Takuya shouted ecstatically more than ever. Here he was miles away from home, and his friends were standing right before him. The odds of such an occasion were immense like a thousand to one.

"Takuya!" the guys ran up to him to give him a group hug, everyone except Kouji.

"Takuya. We didn't expect to get roomed with you," Kouichi said. "Wow what are the odds?"

"I'll say there is a 3,000th of a chance counting the rectitude of-"

"JP, he was just speaking as a figure of speech." Kouji interrupted JP and his calculations.

"Yeah… I know…" JP snorted back.

Takuya intervened between the small feud. "Never mind that! I'm SO glad you guys are here!"

The guys gawked towards Takuya. "Why? Is it that bad here?"

"YES!"

The guys chuckled at Takuya's response. They could tell he was in dire need of his friends company. It felt wonderful being there in the same room together ridiculing one another like old times.

"So where's the others, Tommy and Zoe?" Takuya wondered.

"There here somewhere. Tommy is with the junior high classmen and Zoe is in her room at the girl's dorm.

"That lucky girl has a room all to herself!" JP moaned, tears welling up in his eyes.

The rest of the guys ignored his remark.

"But lets get out of here already, or else we'll be late for class." Kouichi suggested, given the fact there was only five minutes to class started.

"Crap! That's right! I'm going to be late!" Takuya suddenly grabbed his backpack and sprinted out the door without the others.

"I see he's still being late to class as usual." Kouji muttered before a smirk crept on his face.

-xxx-

"OK class. It looks like we've received three more foreign students." Ms. Avery announced to her homeroom class.

Next to her stood: Izumi Orimoto, Kouji Minamoto, and Kouichi Kimura. Kouichi and Kouji had on a black military style gakuran like Takuya's. Kouji's was a tighter fit than his brothers. Zoe wore a buttoned white sailor type blouse, and a burnt orange blazer that clung to her figure. On the bottom half she had a mini black plaid skirt and black thigh high socks with brown penny loafers.

"Everyone say hi!" Ms. Avery repeated.

"Hi Kouji. Hi Kouichi. HI IZUMI!" The whole class raved over the three more than they did for Takuya when he first arrived. This made Takuya twitch with envy.

All three of the students took a seat, surrounding Takuya; Kouji right next to him, Izumi behind Kouji and, Kouichi behind Takuya.

"Hey Takuya! I haven't seen you in ages" Zoe spoke in a low voice as she acknowledged her old friend.

The brunette silently smiled back.

"So does anyone have a question for our new students?" Ms. Avery asked the student body. One gutsy kid had the balls to stand to his feet. It was the same wimpy kid Takuya met the other day that informed him about Kyle.

"I-I do Ms. Avery!" the kid stammered. He was sweating buckets, and his fists were clenched tightly. "This one's for the girl." He said with his finger pointed at Zoe, while his voice quivered.

With a deep breath he finally let it out, "ZOE WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME!"

The class fell silent due to shock value of the situation. Even Takuya's eyes went wide as a raccoon. Zoe's cheeks blushed a slight pink given the proposal the kid offered. It was her first day and she was already getting requests as one's girlfriend.

"Oh, Jimmy… that's quite… blunt…" Ms. Avery replied.

The whole class burst into laughter while Jimmy slowly slumped back into his seat.

Kouji watched the kid while carrying his head in his palm. " What an idiot."

"Poor guy," said Kouichi as he turned his head towards Zoe to see her reaction.

"Alright class settle down. Enough already." Ms. Avery did her best to tranquil her classroom

As the chatter subsided the loud speakers bellowed an annoying beep before a gruff voice took its place.

"Alright students of West Legacy Academy, it's about that time of year again for the New Year Orientation."

The classrooms across the building rose in commotion. This was the one time of the year where the student body could get away from the classrooms and spend an entire two hours listening to the principal talk about academics and expectations.

"So without further or do, may I ask all teachers to dismiss there fellow students to the auditorium for a 'brief' discussion."

At the drop of a hat all the students dispersed from their chairs and into the hallways towards the auditorium.

"I wonder what they'll be talking about?" Zoe muttered as she paced beside her fellow male friends.

"Well it's an orientation. So they're probably going to bore us to death about silly stuff like rules and stuff," Takuya replied, trying to sound informative.

Zoe gave him one of here disbelieving looks she was known for.

-xxx-

After the freshmen student body found their seats in the auditorium, a young man wearing a dark slender suit with an orange dress shirt underneath came from behind the curtains. He dramatically adjusted his black framed glasses and straightened his tie. He approached the podium and cleared his throat before he spoke into the mic. It was Mr. Hitoyoshi.

"Hello fellow freshmen and welcome to Western Legacy Academy!" the man spoke with such drama and swagger as his hand waved in the air.

The crowd up roared with cheers and whistles as if they were at a football game.

"Whats Mr. hitoyoshi doing up there?" Takuya wondered.

"My name is Mr. Hitoyoshi and I'm your assistant principal at this school. And without further or do let's get on with the presentation."

With a snap of his fingers, a large white screen came down from behind him. The lights went pitch black and the screen lit up with huge letters accompanied by loud motivational classic music. With the man standing to the side, one could tell that Mr. Hitoyoshi was proud of his work.

"Here at West Legacy Acaemy, you can learn and home your gifts and talents." He raised his defiant finger in the air with his other hand across his chest as if he was posing for Men's Magazine. "You will learn what it's like to be in one of the top schools of the Legacy Academy District and be the best you can be."

There were silent "Ooos" and "Aws" resonating in the crowd.

"Here at West Legacy Academy, we have all the tools you need. All you need to do is use them to the best of your abilities and come out on top!"

By now the students were starting clap and cheer as if the man was motivational speaker.

"And remember for I am with you and TOGETHER WE CAN ACHIEVE ANYTHING!"

After that motivational speech, the student body was going bonkers, cheering on just about every word that passed by the screen accompanied by an epic voice.

"LEADERSHIP!"

"EXCELLENCE!"

"GRATITUDE!"

"ACADEMIC!"

"CREATIVITY!"

"YEARNING!"

While the screen blared out these random words, Kouji looked over to his friends to see their reaction. It was mutual.

"What the hell is this?"

-xxx-

After the moving and motivation presentation, the students went back to class pumped up for the school year. Lunchtime was just around the corner and the gang was starving.

"Man I can't wait till lunch. Takuya do you know what they serve here?" Kouichi moaned.

"Just about everything…"

Zoe, Kouji, and Kouichi's mouthes salivated.

"Really?"

"Yeah… pretty much everything."

The lunch bell rang and it was time to eat.

-xxx-

(During the lunch break…)

The sound of peoples' conversation and spoons clanking plates echoed throughout the lunch room cafeteria as students wandered to their seats.

Takuya had already found a spot to eat and was waiting for the rest of the gang to show up at his table. At least this time he wouldn't be alone.

_Man, I really can't believe all my friends are here. It's still hard to believe sometimes_ Takuya pondered to himself while he stirred the pasta around in his plate. _Now that there here I wont have to feel alone anymore. _He looked at the surrounding tables before his eyes met his fellow comrades.

"So this is where you're sitting?" JP wondered. He was behind Kouji and Kouichi and was ready to sit down and eat.

"Yeah… and what are you doing here, JP?" Takuya answered his question with a question.

"What's it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to find a place to eat." With that, JP finally sat down along with the twins. His uniform was different from the Takuya's. He wore a burnt orange blazer over a white dress shirt with a black tie around his neck. He also had black slacks on and brown penny loafers.

Takuya processed the information JP gave him, "Yeah, but I thought since you' were a grade higher than us you would be in class instead of lunch."

"Well apparently I'm on lunch break. By the way did you guys know that they serve a bunch of different styles of food up here? They even have BBQ ribbed steak?"

The twins along with Takuya looked at JP with deadbeat expressions as they both replied, "Yeah" at the same time.

"Yeah, well I didn't till now… so yeah." to shut them up, he took a big bite of his steak.

"Hey guys!" Tomoki showed up next to the table in his little white dress shirt and black tie, with black slacks. Without his notorious brown puffy hat, he looked like a different kid.

"Hey Tommy!" the rest of the guys welcomed him to the table.

"Looks like everyone ones here." Tommy observed.

"Yeah… everyone except Zoe."

"Where the heck is that girl anyways?" JP mumbled with food in his mouth.

(**Instant Background Music:** She's Like the Wind, by Patrick Swayze)

On cue, the girl was making her way over to their table as she waved them down. The guys all waved back simultaneously as if she was one of the guys.

But with every step she took, heads were turning… especially young men with raging hormones.

"Hey! What's your name?"

"Can I have yo number? Can I have it?"

With all the cat calls and whistles being flung at her, Zoe was beginning to blush. She had never had this much attention drawn towards her before.

"Geez, I swear these guys up here act as if they've never seen a new girl before."

"Face it. She's fresh meat to these hyenas." Kouji quipped.

Zoe finally made it over to the guys in one piece. Her face was still slightly flushed.

"Hey guys."

"Hey Zoe!" everyone replied as she took a sea between Takuya and JP.

It was official. The gang had finally reunited. But even though, there was still an awkward silence between all of them.

"Ahem, I guess since we're all here we should go over our schedule." Kouichi suggested with a subtle cough.

"Well I'll say... I have some the worst teachers." JP complained before he took a huge sip from his jug of Coke.

"Really?"

"Yeah like my homeroom teacher is some old guy who hardly speaks to the class, yet he expects us to understand the stuff he's teaching. He even gave us a project that's due next week."

"Sorry to here that JP." Takuya remarked with sarcasm.

"Whatever. You could care less. Who's your homeroom teacher?" JP snapped.

"Oh… _her_ names Ms. Avery."

"Ms-Ms. Avery? Y...You mean you have a female teacher?"

"Yeah and she's hot too!" Kouichi added while he twitched his eyebrows.

"You mean you guys all got the same class together and the teacher's hot?"

The four of them (Takuya, Kouji, Kouichi, and Zoe) nodded.

"Damn my luck!"

"Anybody wants to hear how my day went?" Tommy said, hoping to get their attention considering he was always the overlooked one in any given situation.

"Sure…"

"Shoot."

"Well not much happened really. I like my teacher though." Tommy said, informing his friends, never to be heard from again.

"That's great Tommy." Takuya replied, just for the sake of speaking.

Before anything else happened, Zoe looked at her tray and realized she didn't have her most basic necessity: a napkin.

"Hey, can I borrow your napkin, Takuya?" she asked nicely as she waited for his response.

The brunette paused for a second before he answered. "uh… sure."

Zoe then took the napkin and folded it onto her lap.

Takuya in the meant time watched her almost as if he was admiring her. He remembered that "intimate" moment they shared a while back behind the alley in Shibuya. It was just the two of them. They might as well have confessed their love to each other he thought, yet, here she was acting as if none of it ever happened or was she just pretending it never happened. Takuya caught himself starring long enough until the others noticed.

"Dude... why are you starring at her like that?" Kouichi inquisitively asked.

Takuya instantly snapped back to earth. He glanced at the others and blush a crimson red.

"Oh heh-heh nothing. I was just… making sure she didn't… drop the napkin…"

Awkward silence commenced while JP starred the goggle-less boy with jealous dagger eyes. He quickly diverted the attention away from Takuya."Oh Zoe… would you like some of my food?"

"What's this JP? You? Sharing food?" Kouji outburst.

"My eyes deceive me!" Kouichi added.

"This cannot be!" Tommy said, adding to the hilarity of random outbursts.

"What? Is it wrong that I every so often feel generous enough to offer my food to others? Is it?"

The others were not buying it.

"That's ok JP. I have enough on my plate." Zoe said. She politely turned down JP's offer.

"I see…" JP felt slightly hurt.

Tommy quickly seized the opportunity, "Hey, can I have some of your dessert, JP?"

"Buzz off!"

-xxx-

After the dismal bell from lunch rang, the hall ways grew rowdy again with students roaming around to their next class. Shoes shuffled across the the clean tiled floors and students banged their innocent lockers shut, as if they were punishing the stupid thing for holding books for them.

"So what class do you have next?" Kouichi asked JP who was following alongside.

"I have Chemistry next… a boring class I might add-"

While JP vented about his next class, Takuya strolled beside Zoe starring at her, hoping she would make eye contact. For the most part she was facing the ground as if she were analyzing every single tile she stepped on for cracks.

Here they both were and not much as a single sentence has transpired between them except for earlier at the cafeteria.

"Are you ok?"

"Huh?" Zoe was almost started, "Oh… yeah. I'm fine."

"Well you haven't said much since you got here. You haven't said much to me."

Zoe's cheeks slightly blushed, "Well it has been quite a day, adjusting to this place and all."

She was right. Ever since she and the others got there, they never had much time to adjust from the lack of sleep and jet lag.

"Zoe… back then…" Takuya paused for a second, "Back at that alley… I meant to tell you something…"

He suddenly had Zoe attention now as her ears perked. It was her turn to be facing Takuya while he faced the floor. She slowly remembered the alley he was referring to on that fateful day.

"Hey what you guys talking about?" JP rudely interrupted, "You guys having your own conversation or something?"

"Actually, yes we were!" Takuya snapped.

"Oh really! Please share!"

Takuya was getting agitated. "It's not like I have to tell you or anything."

Suddenly, a young male approached Zoe.

"Soooo… what do they call you?"

"Huh?" Zoe was taken by surprise

"Oh I'm sorry. My names Erik. Please to meet you."

"Oh hahaha. Please to meet you." Zoe laughed nervously.

"Please. The pleasure is all mine." He fell to one knee and gently wrapped his hand around her arm. He then gently kissed the back of her soft hand.

In the meant time, both Takuya and JP were anger twitching.

"BUZZ OFF KID!"

The guy quickly walked off.

"Thanks guys." Zoe thanked her male friends in relief. She wasn't sure what was going on.

"No problem." Takuya and JP bragged, rolling their sleeves back down.

Down the hall, a there was a ruckus as students scampered to their lockers making room for what seemed to be a gang of mean girls. And not just any mean girls. These were the girls that would be deemed as the top of the food chain in a high school social status.

There were three of them, one walking in front and two walking side by side right behind the leader.

One of the girls walking on the side had had black flowing hair, piercing blue eyes, and tan white skin. The other girl next to the leader had gorgeous light brown hair, and hazel eyes with white skin that has seen the sun on regular bases. The lead girl who seemed to be the most prominent had curly blond hair and sea blue eyes with fair skin. They all walked with a commanding yet graceful pace while everyone marveled at their beauty and prowess

Two couples managed to stand in the way of the oncoming triple threat. The lead girl got in between them and pushed them aside with ease as if they were in _her_ way. The girls on the sides aided her.

"Who are they?" Kouichi was the first to speak, holding his breath.

"Well..._obviously_... they must be the most popular girls in school." Kouji answered, with his infinite social wisdom.

"Oh crap, she's coming our way." JP said as he quickly held his hands up and stroke an award pose.

The gang stepped aside while the girls approached their direction.

The lead girl crudely eyed them, especially Zoe. She eyed Zoe one last time with an evil eye before she snapped her attention in front of her with a soundly "Hmmph!"

"What was that all about?" Zoe muttered, while the group of mean girls walked off. She was slightly worried for her sake.

"Yeah, it was like as if they were giving Zoe a dirty look with that death glare." Kouichi said, acknowledging the obvious.

JP stopped posing like a clown and resumed his composure, "Don't worry Zoe. There just jealous… and hot!"

The gang face palmed due to JP's remark. He was always a complete pervert.

The halls went back to normal and the school bell rang for next period.

"Man those girls show know how to make and entrance and exit" one random kid mumbled to his friend as they passed by Zoe and the gang.

-xxx-

(After school...)

After school was over, everyone returned home to their dorms for another day spent inside brick walls and unrelenting lectures. The school was beginning to pick up and soon there would be activities swarming the campus area.

"I can't wait for the soccer season to start." Takuya said aloud to his friends with his hands behind his head. Kouji, Kouichi and Zoe walked beside him.

Kouji wiped a quick smirk from his face due to the insult he was about to come up with, "So you really think you'll make the team?"

"Of course I will… I got a scholarship for it." Takuya defended himself. He then realized his friends never explained their journey to the school, "By the way, you guys never mentioned how you got accepted at this school."

The twins and Zoe looked at each other then back at the brunette with the sudden question.

"How else do you think, stupid? We applied like you did." Kouji replied.

"And we were lucky" Kouichi added with his eyebrows rising up and down to add comic humor.

"Oh I see… that makes sense...well anyways…" the soccer bound boy stepped back and wrapped his hands around the twins, "I'm just glad you guys are here."

"Get your hands off… no one is allowed to touch me." Kouji released himself from Takuya's grip.

Zoe watched as the guys acted like jerks towards each other. "I feel left out," she joked.

the guys turned their attention towards the blond. "Aw Zoe, we didn't forget you." The guys proceed to give her a group hug with evil grins.

"That's ok…" Zoe laughed nervously as she stepped aside, "I got to go anyway. My dorm is right here."

They stopped in front of an open gate with girls walking to a prestigious building the size of a castle, just like the boys dorm.

She walked towards the gate and waved at the guys. "Bye guys! See you all tomorr-"she accidentally tripped over the small steps. When she realized her blunder, she quickly rose to her feet to dust herself off. She then turned around and gave the guys a thumbs up. "I'm ok!" She then walked down the road to the front door with her hands swinging back and forth in an elaborate fashion.

"Sometimes I worry about her." Kouji muttered, with folded arms. The other two sweat dropped.

"So do you still have a crush on her?" Kouichi asked, diverting the situation on Takuya. It was so sudden and unexpected that the boy began to babble and turn bright red in the cheeks.

"W-What? W-Why would say such a thing…huh."

"Oh don't play dumb with us, Takuya. We've known that you've had the hugest crush on her throughout middle school back at home." Kouji reminded him, waving a defiant finger at him.

"Well yeah, That was months ago, and it's not like I like her, like her. I mean she was... she is cute…"

"Ahaa! He admits it!" Kouichi outburst.

"W-What? No! All I said is she's OK to look at, and-" Takuya attempted to clean up his mess and fill the hole he was digging himself in.

"No, CORRECTION! You said she was 'CUTE'." Kouji corrected.

"Yeah, but… gah, there's no winning with you guys…"Takuya sulked, turning away in dismay.

-xxx-

(While the guys were arguing…)

_I'm such a cluts sometimes_, Zoe thought to herself tucking a strand of her blond hair behind her ear. She walked towards the front door to the dorm building, looking back one last time to see if Takuya and friends were still there. Apparently they still were and it looked like they were arguing over something. Perhaps it was guy stuff like who was more athletic or had the most peach fuzz.

She walked down the long hallway on the maroon carpet towards the golden elevator. Once she was inside she punched the second floor followed by elevator music.

As soon as the doors opened, the rowdy sounds of girls giggling, chatting, and running from room to room could be heard. Some girls watched her as she walked past them, as if they had never seen another human being before. She finally stood in front of the door to her room 224.

She walked in and closed the door behind her and took her burnt orange blazer jacket off and sat on the bed with her legs crossed. She gazed out the window towards the sky and the guy's dorm that was a few blocks away.

" *Sigh* I need some roommates."

(**Ending Song:** Ordinary Day, by Vanessa Carlton)

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** It looks like Zoe is alone in her dorm room, but I plan to change that in the next chapter or so, and it looks like she already made herself an enemy (DUNH! DUNH!)

Also, Valentine's Day is around the corner. I usually dedicate a one shot for the occasion but I guess this time I'll just write a chapter instead. I have a lot of catching up to do.

Patrick Swayze - _She's Like The Wind_


	5. Day 3

**A/N:** This chapter was brought you by… SELF WORTH! Because I don't have it.

**Just A Day In The Life… **

**Day 3**

**(Roommates and Soccer Tryouts)**

Early morning the next day, Kouji woke up earlier than the other three in their dorm room. Takuya was half asleep and drooling all over the pillow. He mumbled half incoherent words of "No don't go! Purple doves!" and rolled ever on his belly. Right now sleep was his best friend and he did not want to let go of her.

Kouichi was just the same, lied out on his bed with no covers to cover him. Despite how chilly it was outside, he was on top of his bed with no shirt and some black pajama pants, limbs hanging off the bed's edges.

JP was on the top bunk above Kouichi and was sound asleep. Not a peep from him since he had a nice meal of midnight pizza.

_SSSSCHWIIINK!_

The sound of what sounded like a blade swung in the crisp morning air. It woke Takuya up with his watery eyes focusing on what he just heard. He saw Kouji sitting down on the back of his heels with eyes closed. Before him lied a black sheathed samurai katana with silver embroidery.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" Takuya yelled as he jumped out of bed.

Poking one of his eyes open, Kouji evil eyed the brat then closed his eye, regaining focus.

"Its my prize Katana that was pasted down by many family."

"Yeah, I don't really care about that I just want to know WHAT IS IT DOING HERE?"

"Don't worry. I have permission to keep this as long as I don't unsheathe it or stab anybody with it."

"What? That's all? They don't have you under surveillance? Don't you need a license to carry that thing?"

"No…"

Takuya blinked with a dumbfounded expression. "That's absurd."

"Hey, I need this to practice for my Kendo class anyways so shut up."

"Well…whatever… just be careful where you swing that thing… OK?"

By now the others were waking up from all the noise. JP was the first to fully awake. "What's going on? Why do I hear a conversation about- WHAT THE HECK IS THAT, KOUJI? A BUCHER KNIFE?"

-xxx-

_YAAAAWN…_Zoe yawned loudly like a princess who just had her beauty sleep. She removed the covers as she stretched her arms and legs in her white cami and pink plaid pajama bottoms. She scratched her morning hair and smacked her morning breath lips. That familiar morning after taste lingered in her mouth, urging her to do something about it. She sprung to her feet and went the bathroom to clean up for the day.

After brushing her teeth and taking a warm shower, she dressed herself up in her uniform while looking at herself in the mirror to adjust and readjust her outfit a thousand times just for it to be right. She still felt lonely since she had no roommates yet.

_Todays' the second day of school, and I still don't have anybody as a roommate, and on top of that I already have a potential enemy._ She had a short memory lapse from yesterday when, that one "mean girl" gave her the death glare. It was then her old memories of her elementary school days began to haunt her. She wanted to do everything in her power not to repeat those same dreadful events.

"I better not be a part of some high school rivalry with this girl…" Zoe said as she finished tying her black tie. She fluffed her hair to style it up, and slapped her hands across her thighs when she was done. She then walked through the door to the hallway on her way to school.

As she trotted down the hall to avoid skewering eyes of scrutiny from anyone, two girls stood in her way. She looked at them and was slightly taken off guard. They both had violet hair and white toned skin twined. They both seemed to be aloof, with no goal in mind towards education or going to school at the moment. One of the girls was leaning against the wall in her black blazer and black/white plaid skirt, with her back towards Zoe. She turned around after feeling the sense someone was behind her.

"Hmm?" She stared at Zoe and gave a casual smirk, "Hey! Aren't you that new girl?"

Zoe paused as her hand clenched tightly to the strap of the schoolbag latched across her torso. She nervously twitched in place as her mind developed a response.

"Uhmm… yes… who wants to know?"

"No need to worry. We just heard that you've been stirring heads."

Zoe nervously laughed while rubbing the back of her neck. "Um, is that a good thing?"

"Depends…" the other twin spoke.

Suddenly, an entourage of girls gradually began to form around the new girl with a plethora of questions.

"Hey you're that new girl, right?"

"What's your name?"

"Where are you from?"

Zoe was surrounding by a throng of inquisitive students. She still wasn't adjusted to all the attention, but nicely answered all their questions.

"My name is Izumi Orimoto, but my friends call me Zoe."

"Ooooo…" the girls chanted in awe.

None of the interested girls noticed, but the three mean girls from yesterday appeared at the end of the hall and were approaching the crowd. The three girls had never seen such amount of activity before and were a bit jealous of whoever was receiving the star treatment. At the drop of a hat, the mood of the situation changed as if an ominous presence filled up the hallway. The female students that once circled around Zoe gradually backed away from her to let the three girls through. The leader with the blond hair and piercing blue eyes glance at one girl standing toward the side, making her cry spontaneously. She then looked at Zoe who was now standing alone.

"So it looks like we meet again…new girl."

-xxx-

"And so I had him by the throat, right? And he was like… 'gah gah gah', gasping for breath…" JP was babbling about his one encounter with a bully back in middle school. It was a gruesome story that none of the others ever heard of before, nor witnessed.

"So tell us again. What did this guy do to deserve this?" Kouichi asked, skeptically.

The group of guys strolled along the way to the front gate of the girls' dormitory to see if they could meet Zoe along the way to school.

"This guy stole lunch from me on a consistent basis, until I couldn't take it anymore. He had it coming!"

"I thought it was because he was making fun of you." Tommy corrected.

"….eeeyeah….that too, but he wasn't going to get away with it again this time, so I unleashed havoc on the little guy till he knew who his daddy was."

"Little guy? I thought you said he was taller than you?" Kouji took his turn of questioning JP's story, or should I say fairy tale.

"Oh uhm… yeah he _was_ bigger than me…but I just called him little just to emphasize how belittled he was at this point…"

Takuya grew bored from listening to JP's makeshift story, and gazed up ahead towards front gates to the girls' dorms. He noticed three familiar faces standing near the front gate to the girls dorm. It was Kyle Konner and his goons, Mike McJagger and Zack Zimmerman.

Kyle looked up at the group and noticed Takuya looking at him. He shined an arrogant smirk before he turned around and walked away with the rest of his buddies.

"Do you know that guy?" Kouji asked Takuya.

"Yeah… me and him had an encounter earlier this week. It wasn't pretty."

"He looks like an arrogant jock like the ones you see in the movies." Tommy remarked recalling old tv clichés he had seen in his youth (he's still young).

JP was annoyed by the fact no one was listening to him, "Hey are you guys listening to me?"

"JP, there's no need to listen to your made up story."

"WHAT? It's not made up. Do I look like a guy who would take the trouble to make that up?"

"Yeah you have history of making up stuff just to glorify yourself." Kouichi replied.

"No I don't"

Kouji quickly responded. "Bullshit! Like that one time at the homecoming dance in Shibuya! You said the girl that you brought with you was your actual date."

"Yeah you nearly fooled us, until your plan fell apart. You were actually bribing her until it was over." Kouichi filled in the blanks, "But you didn't have the money to pay her back and got beat up."

The guys persecuted JP left and right following up by chortling at such a wonderful memory. JP was the only one that didn't find the situation funny.

"But that was different. I was young and naïve."

While the guys went back and forth verbally, Takuya paused to think about Kyle and what the guy was up to. Was he truly a threat that he should worry about, or was it waste of his time?

-xxx-

The second floor of the girl's hallway was practically still. No one bothered to speak, but instead listened to the two blonde girls, converse with each other.

"Yes, I'm the new girl. My name's Zoe by the way." Zoe took the liberty of introducing herself in hopes of befriending the girl.

"Zoe? I see…" she carefully eyed her up and down, as she walked a complete circle around Zoe as if she were a fashion designer, critiquing her outfit. "Well, let me let you in on something. If you think you're coming here to steal all the attention, you're wrong! Around here, I call the shots, and what I say goes, goes!"

"Mmmhmmmph!" the girls behind her backed her up.

"So don't think for one second you anyone one special, OK?"

"There's only room for one blond around here, and that's Sheila Scathenbaum" the girls behind her informed Zoe and the rest of the girls that seemed to have forgotten this wonderful information.

With that being said, Sheila snapped her fingers and the three girls gathered, walking towards the elevator. The two girls entered first before Sheila did the same. With a dramatic stride she stepped in and turned around facing Zoe and the rest of the onlookers. The door closed and she disappeared behind them.

As soon as the elevator descended everyone went back to normal, caring on with their daily business.

"Yep, that's Sheila Scathenbaum for yah." Said the twin with curly violet hair, folding her arms in disgust.

"She can be a total bitch sometimes if you get in her way, her and her two followers, Camille Colebanks and Giselle Gransworth." It was the other twin that informed Zoe of Sheila's gang members.

With the amount of attention Zoe was receiving from Sheila and her group, she was curious to know more about the three girls, but from a safe distance where she wasn't confronting them face to face.

"So who are they, really?" she asked.

"They say their parents own part of the school or something." The twin with curly hair added. "They come from a long line of prestigious family members."

It finally occurred to the three girls that they didn't acquaint themselves with one another, after speaking for so long.

"Oh and I'm Victoria by the way. Victoria Leaphorn. And this is my sister Vanessa." The twin with the violet straight hair introduced herself and her identical twin.

"Hi!" the other girl waved at Zoe, beaming with an adorable smile.

"Please to meet you guys." Zoe echoed back a greeting of her own.

As the three girls got acquainted, another female student approached the group. She was about six feet tall and had orange red hair, green eyes, and rosy white skin peppered with small freckles on her cheeks.

"I overhead Sheila speaking to you earlier. Don't let her get to you. She's just an attention whore."

"Amen to that!" Victoria replied. The four girls snickered as if they had been friends all their lives. They all came to the sudden conclusion that they should make it official and become friends for life.

"You know. I've been alone in my dorm for some time now, and I could use some roommates." Zoe stated her current predicament.

"Are you suggesting we join you?" Victoria asked.

"Yes! I would greatly appreciate that!" Zoe confirmed. This was he chance to make new friends so that she would not be alone anymore.

"Sounds like plan." Vanessa said as she fluffed her hair.

The tall redheaded girl nodded her head and smirked. "I'm Naomi by the way. Naomi Baines."

With that being said, the four girls walked out the door heading towards the school premises.

-xxx-

"So this is the girls' dormitory, eh?" JP said, in awe of the beautiful structure while he and the others stood in front of the gates

"JP, don't get any dumb ideas." Kouji quipped.

"Hey, I wasn't thinking anything weird OK."

"Guys I think we're going to be late for class." Tommy interrupted, but nobody listened.

"Hold on, Tommy. We've got to wait for Zoe." JP reminded them why they were there.

Kouji took the liberty of correcting JP. "NO! It's _you_ that's got to wait for Zoe."

Meanwhile, four groups of girls walked out of the front door, towards the gate. It was Zoe escorted by three other young ladies, two of which were twins.

"Sweet Mabonya! Who are they?" JP hooted while salivating from the corner of his mouth.

Zoe saw her guy friends standing outside and gave them a wave as she approached them. Her new friends surrounded her like a group of Charlie's Angels.

"Hey Zoe." The guys said, unanimously.

"Who's your friends?" Kouichi asked. He was just as curious as the other guys.

"Guys. Meet my new friends, slash, roommates: Victoria, Vanessa, and Naomi."

The guys introduced themselves and became familiar with Zoe's new friends.

"So you guys are twins?" Kouichi asked Vanessa, who was acting abash.

"Well obvious they are when they look identical to each other." Kouji rudely interrupted his brother.

"So? Still! Can't I still ask her anyways? I'm trying to start a conversation."

"Mmhmm. I bet that's not all you trying to do."

Everyone listened to the two brothers go head to head on this pressing issue of twins and identities.

"Well guys have fun. _I'm_ going to class!" As if Tommy were mad, he stormed off to meet his first class of the day. The other should do the same he thought.

-xxx-

(Later on that morning in class…)

"…And so that is why the concept of the pressing issue of literature in today's society lingers throughout…" Ms. Avery lectured to her homeroom class as she had their undivided attention. With the sound of her soothing voice, resonating with the students ears, she could practically talk the students into anything, even into a nice long nap.

Despite the fact 99 percent of the male students held the teachers gaze, Takuya was the only one staring out the window like he always did whenever he had a lot on his mind during class. He wondered how he was going to get through the day without sleeping or dying of boredom. There was also the issue of today's lunch menu. It was Tuesday's Surprise on a Wednesday, and he didn't like the sound of that. But what stood out the most was the last thing on his school schedule. It was his after school soccer tryouts. He couldn't wait for it, but he was also nervous of his first impressions. He hadn't practice in a long time and he wanted to make a good impression for varsity. The last time his feet had touched a ball was the beginning of summer.

"Mr. Kanbara!"

Takuya's attention snapped. He looked back at the teacher calling his name and his cheeks flustered a rosy pink.

"Can you answer my question?"

"Uuuhm… sure… of course I can." He gulped loudly before he nervously looked at his friends for some help.

Neither of them gave him any aid with their anticipated expressions

"Ahem…the answers FOUR! Two plus two is four."

"Mr. Kanbara, this is Literature." Ms. Avery reminded the young man as if he lost his mind. The class suddenly laughed from his irrational answer.

Takuya glanced over at his friends and noticed Kouji shaking his head with sarcastic disappointment. "Idiot!"

(Meanwhile in the lunchroom…)

During lunch period, the gang sat at their usual table in their usual designated spots they had unknowingly given themselves. Zoe was in between Takuya and JP while Kouji, Kouichi, and Tommy sat across from them.

"You know what? We should hang out more often." JP said. It was more of an afterthought.

"What did you have in mind?" Takuya wondered, spooning the mash potatoes on his plate. They were untouched and he could have sworn he saw a strand of hair.

"Oh I don't know, maybe check out the local restaurants… or go to the club."

"Or maybe we could go to the mall. They should have one around here." Zoe exuberantly interjected, JP's list of venues.

Kouji, ignored Zoe as he found it hard to grasp what JP mentioned earlier. "JP? When have you ever been to the club?"

"…never. It was just a suggestion."

"The idea sounds good to me," Takuya said, "When do we go? I got soccer tryouts after school."

"Yeah, I have kendo classes also." Kouji admitted, in his usual nonchalant pose which consists of folded arms, and closed eyes facing the ground.

"Well that's no good. I have piano lessons after class." Kouichi sounded heartbroken to realize the majority of preoccupied schedules.

Zoe suddenly recalled she too had plans after school. "I nearly forgot. I have my first volleyball practice after school today also."

Tommy looked at the others disbelievingly. "Am I the only one that doesn't have something to do after school?" he said in his winey voice.

"I guess we'll try again this weekend. Nobody should be doing anything then." JP suggested before he drank his orange juice from a glass, "Is that a tooth?"

Meanwhile, on another table a few rows behind them, Victoria, Vanessa, and Naomi called out Zoe's name. "Hey Zoe!"

Zoe looked up and saw them waving. She waved back at them, excited to see them.

"We saved a spot for you!" Vanessa called out.

Zoe, acknowledge their invitation and got up from her chair to go sit with them. "Sorry guys. The girls are calling me. I'll see you guys later."

"Bye!" the young men all spoke in unison. Now that Zoe found new friends of her gender, the guys figured they would be seeing her less and less of her.

As Zoe strolled away from the table, JP called out to her "Take me with you."

-xxx-

(After school during soccer tryouts…)

The outside was pleasant and the grass was green and well-trimmed. The soccer tryouts were about to start and a line of students had already showed up. Some attended last year's tryouts and didn't make the cut, only to return to see if they could make it this time. On the other hand, there were returning players hoping to advance once again this year. Then there were those that were trying to make the cut for the first time.

"Alright, gentlemen! Today is soccer tryouts, as you might know, and it's nice to see some returning faces." Coach Schneider spoke to the participants that showed up in their tryout outfits. Coach Schneider was a well-built young man in his thirties that had the resemblance of Brad Pitt but younger. The coach had seen many soccer tournaments in his day before he retired to become a coach. Let's just say he knew a thing or two about winning… a lot.

Takuya showed up late to the tryouts in his black athletic shorts and white tank top with knee high black socks and white cleats.

"Well. Well. Well, if it isn't Mr. Takumzy." Kyle Konner, the star athlete stood to the side as he eyed Takuya approaching the soccer field.

Takuya grunted under his breath as he dropped his bag of extra stuff. "First of all my name is Takuya! And second, I didn't know you play soccer?"

"I could say the same thing about you Takky." Mr. Konnor quipped, while his two buddies snickered.

Takuya snarled under his breath like a pit bull ready to bite a house intruder. His suspicions of Konnor being a cocky school jock were correct from the get go.

"Alright! We'll start with warm ups, and get going from there!" Coach Schneider barked as he blew his whistle.

For the next ten minutes the soon-to-be soccer teammates jogged around before stretching their leg muscles as well as their upper bodies. From there, they got up and started doing lunges and laterals to get in to the mood of playing soccer.

"You all will be placed on teams: Varsity, Junior Varsity, and freshman, by the end of this tryouts, depending on your performance." The coach explained.

The coach's words rustled up the students expectations. Everyone in particular coveted a position on the varsity team.

"Well, boys...it looks like I'll be making it to Varsity again this year." Kyle bragged to Mike and Zack as he placed his arms over his head.

Takuya scoffed under his breath. This Kyle guy was starting to be an annoyance. He had to shut him up somehow, and doing so would be to make varsity team as a freshman.

-xxx-

Everyone got intro groups and practice passing the ball and dribbling down the field while controlling the ball. Everyone was doing exceptionally nice with their foot work.

"Man, I wish I could make it into varsity." One kid jabbered while dribbling his own soccer ball next to Takuya.

"That Konnor guy is so good. I'm sure he's going to get into Varsity no doubt." Another kid said.

"This Kyle Konnor… is he some sort of star player?" Takuya asked, annoyed that this was the thirteenth time he heard that name today.

"You bet! The guy is the only reason we win in off season tournaments. He scored most of our goals in regionals last year."

"His parents even tried to get him into better soccer program somewhere else where he could home his skills, but the school principal begged him to stay."

"I heard they _bribed _him."

All this talk about Konnor was getting to Takuya's head. "You guys got to have a little faith. I'm sure anyone can make it in varsity if they just try hard. "

The guys glanced at Takuya then back at one another before laughing like cackling hyenas.

"Dude! One does not simply "make it" into varsity!" one of the players said, who had long hair and the resemblance of Boromir from Lord of the Rings.

"Yeah, man you have to have connections, like having rich prestigious parents, or be with the team for at least 3 years."

"Oh…I see…"

"Pahaha… Make it into Varsity." the player scoffed under his breath.

"Hey, I don't see what so funny. Now gather so we can get this game started." Coach Schneider blew the whistle, calling all participants.

-xxx-

Takuya found himself on the black team with the same group of guys he practiced with along with a few others. Kyle and his goons placed on the orange team. Throughout Kyle's team, the teammates felt a bit more confident than they had expected since they had a star player like Kyle.

Kyle started with the ball as he placed it down on the center field. He placed one foot on top of the ball and posed for the opposing team with his hands crossed starring into their souls.

The couch blew the whistle, and everyone immediately played their part as attackers and defenders. Kyle blazed down the field towards the goal, faster than his teammates with an unmatched speed. He dribbled the ball with each stride without it escaping his feet. One of the opposing team members rushed Konnor for the ball, but Konnor read his moves and faked a pass with a crossover in order to get past him. If there was one thing he was known for it was that he wasn't much of a team player.

With each step closer to the goal, the defense intensified, as another opposing team member came from behind for a tackle. Kyle watched for the perfect time to escape his attempt and broke speed, avoiding the tackle. He was meters away from scoring a goal, and the goalie stood in his way, nervously.

With a sharp and precise kick, he volleyed the ball in the air like a missile, sailing towards its target. It went past the goalie as he staggered in the opposite direction of the incoming ball, misjudging the shot.

Kyle went on to walk off to the side as his fellow teammates ran up to him and hug him from behind. They were excited as they always were when he scored a goal as if it were effortless. His team already scored their first point and it wasn't even a five minutes yet.

Takuya stood back and watched as he waited for his chance to shine on the field.

Before the ball was thrown back in for play, the volleyball girls came outside from the gym in order to do some exercises. In the midst of girls were Zoe and Naomi. Since Naomi was exceptionally tall, she was a good blocker for the team and Zoe was normally the server. The volleyball girls as well as a few students witnessed the soccer match from afar.

As if Takuya didn't have enough pressure to worry about, now he had to look good in front of the female spectators. He glanced at Kyle since most of the girls were going wild over him He noticed Kyle eyeing Zoe.

Takuya snarled as he called for the ball from the goalie. He was fired up now more than ever to play better than ever before. He realized in order for them to score they he had to play smart but aggressively. With adept footwork he dribbled the ball down to midfield as far as he could before he was forced to pass it to a teammate due to the opposing defenders. He continued jogging down the field to get into a perfect position when the time was right. He took the liberty to glance back at the girls watching to see if Zoe was looking back at him. She wasn't. Instead she was looking elsewhere at the game. He snapped his attention back and grieved after he saw the ball get stripped from one of his teammates that tripped over his own feet. He was back on defense chasing after the ball.

"Come on! Get up!" Takuya encouraged the fallen comrade as he ran past him.

The opposite team already inched closer to the goal. Mike (the goon) had the ball and passed to Kyle for another perfect assist, sending the ball through the net for another goal. The goalie looked defeated as he grabbed for the ball to through it back in.

"Seriously, guys? Seriously?" Takuya said to himself. He couldn't believe the attitude his team was portraying. It was as if they weren't even trying.

The goalie made sad attempt of throwing the ball in but the ball slipped from his hand causing the trajectory to fall short.

"Oh come on!" Takuya scowled with his hands on his knees, regain his energy. This was going to be a long game.

-xxx-

Twenty minutes had past, and the score was 3 to 1. The orange team was in the lead all because of Kyle's help. If it wasn't for him his team would probably be losing, Takuya thought. The one point that the Takuya's team received was from his own penalty kick.

"Alright! Time out!" the coach blew his whistle in order to break the match.

Takuya's team immediately huddled up to discuss the way the match was going, which was terrible.

"What are you guys doing?" Takuya immediately addressed.

"Man, that Kyle guy is too good. Nobody can touch him." One guy admitted.

"That's stupid. We're not even trying." Takuya snapped.

"Actually I was!"

"Look, if we're going to win we have to play with confidence and we got to play together. He's only one guy and he's been making all their goals."

"Easy for you to say mister penalty kick," said another player with sweaty armpits.

"That doesn't mean anything. We too can score if we learn how to set up great plays. Now let's do this game some just and make a comeback."

"One does not simply make a comeback in a game of soccer." The same Boromir guy from earlier mentioned. He was producing bad vibes for the team's self-confidence.

"Well I say we can. Now who's with me?"

The other teammates looked at one another before giving each other a reassure grin. "He's right. He's just one guy and we can still win this."

"Now that's what I'm talking about."

-xxx-

Later on in the game, the black team came back as if they were a different set of people. They played with more purpose and zeal to win this game… even if they were severely losing.

The coach blew the whistle again and the match picked up where it left off.

Takuya sprinted with the ball and passed to one of his teammates that he passed to before, but this time he didn't slip. He passed the ball again further down the field to one of the midfielders ready to score. Seeing that Takuya was open, the teammate passed it across the field to Takuya as he dashed towards it like there was no tomorrow. With all his might, Takuya planted one of his feet in the ground and used his shooting leg to launch the ball towards the goal. He put a spin on the ball, giving it a curved flight right into the goal, past the goalie.

The girls watching began to cheer slight as they did when Konnor made his three shots. Takuya nearly swelled up inside from the ego boost, but his team still had to make two more shots in order to win the game and there was only five more minutes on the clock.

The opposing goalie kicked the ball back in the game all the way down past the mid field. They wanted to keep the ball on the goal side in order to stall time if necessary. Realizing this, Takuya sprinted down the field as fast as possible. They needed the ball back in their possession as soon as possible if they were to have a chance to win.

When Takuya finally got down the field, one of the orange shirts had the ball. It was Zack and he was looking for a chance to pass it to his friend, Kyle, there trusted trump card. Takuya noticed ahead of time and immediately sprinted toward Kyle. As expected Zack kicked the ball towards Kyle, but the ball was immediately intercepted by the sharp Takuya Kanbara. He deadened the speed of the ball with his chest before he transitioned it down the opposing goal. His sweaty hair whipped from side to side with each jogging step he took. Kyle realizing that the ball was intercepted already made a run for it down the field ahead of time. It was now Takuya's responsibility to play the ball to the other side for a potential game tying goal.

His surroundings seemed to have moved in slow motion as he jogged down the field. Sun beat down on his eyes, as they analyzed down the field for safe options. No one was open, and this was his final chance prove himself worthy of perhaps a spot in varsity.

A player in an orange jersey ran up to him for a blocking tackle, but Takuya wielded the skills to dribble and juke the ball effortlessly right past him. Another opposing player ran from the side to slide tackle the ball from his possession. He saw it coming and gently lobbed the ball in the air far enough for him to jump over the players diving foot. Takuya then landed gracefully, still in possession of the ball without missing a beat.

The goal was finally in sight and no one was in his way except Kyle himself. He stood firmly in place with his knees bent, ready to stop Takuya like an agile brick wall. Takuya saw this as the shinning opportunity he needed to score on Kyle and in the process, gain instant gratification, respect, and popularity. If he schooled the great Kyle in a game of soccer, people would begin to have second thoughts of him and his credibility as a godly soccer player like everyone was perceiving him as. Takuya would be the new guy among people's conversations.

The space between him and Kyle began to narrow and the time of truth was approaching. It was now or never. Takuya could sense the hesitation in his adversary as the wind jet across his body. He was like a missile ready to explode.

At the same time this was occurring he glanced up at the girls watching (especially Zoe) and noticed the anticipated looks on their faces. He then glanced at the coaches standing on their feet. With one last look at Kyle he smirked.

"Nothing personal…" he said under his breath. At the same time he was about to strike, he noticed an open player to the side that was coming next to him. He then reconsidered the situation and realized it would be better for a double team.

He nodded at the teammate as the teammate did the same. Takuya subtly passed the ball to him from behind with his heel and watched the rest unfold before his eyes. Konnor was taken off guard from the assist and had to readjust his body position… but it was too late.

The ball was launched in the air and found its mark pasted the goalie, into the goal, as it barely sailed over the goalies out reached hand. The time was up. The game whistle blew. The game ended in a tie.

-xxx-

Realizing that no one actually won, that didn't stick with Takuya's team as they cheered due to the magnificent comeback they displayed.

"We did it!" one of the teammates yelled as he dropped to his knees, crying to the sky.

"Well it looks like I was wrong. One _can_ simply make a comeback in a game of soccer."

"See," Takuya brushed a strand of wet hair from his eyes, "What I tell ya?"

-xxx-

The players gathered around in the locker room to clean up and change as the coach gave his speech. "Well with what I have looked at on the field and off. I and my fellow colleagues will make our decision on who places in what team." With that speech setting the tone for the rest of the wait, the coach went into his office along with the panel of judges to make the decision.

"Man I hope I make it into varsity. I _should_ especially with that comeback from out team." Another teammate said as he dried his hair from the shower.

Takuya remained quiet for the remainder of the wait. He was nervous as to how he performed on the field. He didn't do as badly as he thought he would. He even managed to pep talk his teammates into an unexpected comeback. That at least had to mean something.

He sat down on the bench with his head hung low due to fatigue. The match took a lot of stamina. He realized he needed to get his vascular health back in shape.

With an exhausted look on his face, he looked up to see Kyle looking back at him. Kyle knew that the last moments of the game went horrendously on his part and could have gone exponentially worst if Takuya himself had scored on him at the end. He instantly broke his gaze from the freshman and talked to his two friends.

Takuya knew that Kyle would never live this one down. From now on he still had a target on his back even though he didn't out show Kyle directly on the field.

-xxx-

As the day almost ended, the results displayed on the bulletin board while the young soccer players gathered around and watched for their name. A mixture of cheers and scowling as well as sobbing filled the dense warm room. Takuya watched for his name hoping to see varsity next to his name. To his misfortune it was not. Not even Junior Varsity lined up next to his name. He was placed on the freshman team as if his talents were not considered in the process of choosing.

"What? I don't understand?" he gazed at the results with a gaped mouth as if he were a trout fish.

"And it looks like I have once again, made it on varsity!" Kyle bowed as few of the team members clapped while others pouted with disgust and jealousy. Takuya was among those that writhed with disgust.

The room began to empty and it was only Kyle and Takuya left. Kyle grabbed his bag and made his way towards the door, but before he did he made eye contact with Takuya who was standing nearby.

"Well, tatti, I must say you almost had me at the end there," Kyle said sarcastically with an arrogant smile. "It's just too bad you didn't go head to head with me. Not like you would have score, but maybe the coach would have considered putting you in varsity."

With his arrogant remark, he flicked his auburn brown hair back and strolled out the door. Takuya snarled even louder than before, but did not have enough in him to make any clever remarks.

Coach Schneider suddenly appeared out of his office and was surprised to see Takuya still there. "Hey kid. Go home already."

Takuya was confused, baffled and infuriated all at the same time. He had to speak up for this injustice done upon him.

"Coach! I don't get it! Why didn't I make it on varsity? Am I not good enough?"

"Oh you were good alright. You were perhaps one of the best out. Your name is taknubli, right?"

"NO! It's Takuya, and if I was _sooo_ good, then what gives? Why does Kyle make it in Varsity two years in a row, while I make it on freshan" Takuya was infuriated.

Coach Schneider changed his body position to face the young confused player. "Takuya, the reason why I put you on freshmen was because you have potential… even more than Kyle."

"Huh?" Takuya was taken off guard by that statement. He expected some bull crap answer like "because I'm the coach. What I say goes".

"You see Takuya. When I saw you out there you demonstrated key qualities such as leadership, commitment, and perseverance, as well as your great soccer skills."

"… But that _still_ doesn't explain why I was placed on the sorry freshmen team." Takuya stated, positioning his hands as if he were displaying an imaginary box in front of him.

"You're missing the point. It's not about what team you're on. It's about how well you play on that team. Think of this as a chance to mold yourself into a better player as well as help your teammate around you. This team needs your redeeming qualities to help them out."

"I… I don't know…" Takuya, still disgruntled, looked down at the floor.

"Alright, I'll make you a deal. If you survive this year being on the freshmen team, then next year if you do just as well, I'll place you on the varsity."

Takuya gave a half haggard smirk. "I guess…"He wasn't sure if he was up to the challenge.

"But what about Kyle?" The coach was about to exit before he was stopped by Takuya's open ended question.

"Sooner or later he'll learn that it's not all about him and that there is no 'I' in 'team'." With his words of advice, the coach left the scene. Takuya heed the coach's words and took it to heart. He wasn't going to let this experience bother him too much.

"Better luck next year…" he said to himself before he exited the locker room.

-xxx-

As the brunette came outside, he was received by the fresh outdoors. The breeze hit his face like a gentle warm kiss. The sun was setting in the distance which added a pleasant warm hue to the scenery. He took a deep breath of the air, and exhaled, letting go of any anger.

After clearing his thoughts, he glanced over to the right and noticed two girls standing together, talking to each other. It was Zoe and one of her new friends, Naomi. They both looked sexy in their volleyball uniform which consisted of a white clingy short sleeved jersey that had burnt orange numbers and black spandex short shorts, which sculptured their nice toned backsides. They also wore knee-high black socks and white sneakers to complement their jerseys, and their hair were in ponytails.

Takuya couldn't help but stair at the two for a good minute before the thought of calling their attention came to his brain. But to his misfortune, a hideous and nightmarish scene began to unfold before his eyes. Kyle Konner was approaching them…without a shirt, and he had a lean muscular figure. Zoe didn't stand a decent chance against him.

"Hello ladies." Kyle spoke to the two girls. Zoe blushed madly while Naomi stood firmly in her place without a single change in her facial expression. She was unfazed by Kyle's shirtless body.

"Umm… hi?" Zoe replied, trying to be nice. Naomi however wasn't so pleasant.

"What do you want Kyle?"

"Easy. Easy. What's with all the harsh brutality?" Kyle replied in an easy smooth tone.

"Don't play dumb, Kyle! After what you did?"

"Oh c'mon Naomi. I thought we got past that. It's been a year. Can't you forgive and forget the past?"

"Um… what happened?" Zoe wondered.

"Over my dead body."  
>"Come on Naomi. Don't be like that."<p>

"Um, can someone tell me what's going on?" Zoe was still clueless as she watched Naomi and Kyle go back and forth.

"Nothing! Just take it from me, Zoe. Whatever you do, don't trust this guy. He may seem flattery, but he's just a jerk."

"Naomi, something tells me your still not over-"

"You're damn right I still haven't gotten over it!" she stormed off, leaving Zoe all alone and defenseless to this unknown danger.

It was now Zoe and Kyle's shirtless body standing together. Takuya was still watching form the background. He wanted to see how this would turn out, unfortunately.

"What was she talking about?" Zoe nervously asked.

"Don't worry about her. She's just having a rough time. How are you by the way?"

"I'm-I'm fine." Zoe stuttered. She rarely stuttered.

"Why yes you are."

Zoe blushed again, darting her green eyes away from his hazel ones. She didn't know if she should let her guard down with him. Would he take advantage?

"So you got a name?"

"I-I don't know?" She realized what she said, "I mean-Zoe… my name's Zoe, but my friends call me Izumi."

Kyle chucked before he took a step closer to her. "That's a nice name. Has anyone ever told you how hot you are?"

"Oh…not… really…"

Takuya stood helplessly with his jaws locked open wide. So wide, a colony of bees could fly in and build a nest. Takuya could not make out what they were saying, but he knew Kyle was trying to make a move on his lover- I mean best friend.

"You know this may sound crazy and too soon, but I was think maybe you-"

Zoe felt the request of him asking her out coming and she had to think of something quick. She frantically looked around for anything that change the subject of the conversation, and to her luck she saw an astonished Takuya standing to her left, a far off.

"Hey! Takuya!" Zoe waved and rushed off to his direction, "Sorry Kyle. It was nice talking to you!"

It was Kyle's turn to stand motionless with a dumbfounded look on his face.

Takuya watched Zoe jog over to him in a graceful manner. She jogged like an athlete.

"So you wanna get out of here, right now? Far far away… right now." Zoe sounded apprehensive with good reason, and it Takuya a second to realize what she was implying.

"Oh yeah. Let's go somewhere far away from here." Takuya replied. He looked over to Kyle who was obviously unhappy.

The two then carried on, and went home to their respective dorms.

-xxx-

"So are you alright?" Takuya sounded his best to sound concerned. He wasn't doing so well, realizing that Zoe would probably succumb to Kyle's unforeseen charm.

"Oh yes. I'm fine. For a minute there I thought he was going to ask me out." Zoe sounded relived that she dodged the bullet.

Takuya's faced grimaced for split second. The mere thought, made him sick.

"I'm just glad you showed up when you did." Zoe said.

"Me too…" Takuya replied under his breath.

"I don't know what I would have done."

Takuya chuckled uneasily. He blocked the thought from entering his mind.

A few awkward minutes passed between the two in silence. Like always they found it hard to speak to each other in situations like this.

"I can't wait when I get to my room, though. I'm finally going to have some roommates that I can relate to." Zoe changed the subject. She couldn't wait to experience what it was like to have friends that were females. She spent most of her years with just the guys it almost felt awkward, otherwise.

"We'll probably get to know more about each other, or do each other's hair. We could even study together, or talk about boys."

"Ah yes… heh-heh. Girls talking about boys." Takuya teased as he repeated Zoe's last remark, knowing that's what they would be doing more of.

"AH CRAP!"

"What is it?" Takuya's outburst took Zoe off guard, nearly giving her a heart attack.

"I forgot my books in my locker, and the literature homework is due tomorrow. Gah, I got to go get them." Takuya turned on his heels and sprinted back toward the school.

"Hey! You're just going to leave me to walk by myself?"

"I'm sure your new friends will keep you occupied!" Takuya joked as he flashed one of his signature grins. From what he could see, Zoe looked mildly disappointed, but smiled back at him half genuinely.

-xxx-

The brunette jogged inside the locker room and opened his locker full of books. He found what he was looking for and closed it, ready to head back out.

"Well. Well. Well. If it isn't Tatanuka."

Takuya spun around, but didn't need to in order to know who was speaking to him. It was Kyle and his two goons that never seemed to separate him like Siamese twins.

"Geez, for the last time, it's Takuya, and are you guys following me?"

"I saw you out there, stealing that girl from me." Kyle went straight for the chase, ignoring Takuya's question.

"I didn't steal her. She came to me."

"Whatever, man! So is she your girlfriend or something?"

"Uhm… no," he stammered for a second, "… just a friend."

"That's good. I can ask her out then tomorrow."

"NO! I mean…no!"

"And why not?" Kyle changed his smooth tone to one that was much darker.

"Because… she's not interested in you." Takuya stood his ground a firm as a whimpering Chihuahua.

"Oh really! Did she say so herself?"

"Actually as a matter of fact she did."

Kyle laughed and encouraged his two friends to laugh as well. "Pah! That's absurd. No girl has ever come across me and called me 'uninteresting'."

"Yeah!" with a peculiar look on his face, Zack backed his friend up.

"Look pal. All I'm saying is back off, OK?"

"And what are you going to do about it." Kyle threatened as him and the other two slowly approached the defenseless Takuya.

"Oh well, I'm going to… do absolutely nothing. Come on guys! You would really triple team me on school premises?"

"He's got a point!" Mike replied, stopping the three of them for a second.

"Well in that case…" Kyle gave them a peculiar look then continued proceeding closer and closer to Takuya like stalking predators. Mike cracked his knuckles while Zack popped his neck.

Takuya was backed into a corner and he could feel it… his end was approaching.

(**DUNH! DUNH! DUNH!** )

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**A/N:** Things just go serious there at the end. Let's hope Takuya makes it out alive. Heck with his luck he could make it out of anything as long as he has his wits.

Anyways, sorry for the long update. I haven't had a whole lot of free time to myself lately. Actually I haven't had a whole lot of free time period. Work and other stuff like… work.

It's been a while since I last been on fanfic and it seems as if people are leaving left and right… its kinda sad (T.T). Kinda like in my real life also. (These are sad times.)

Anywho, as for you hardcore Takumi fans, I promise there will be more moments between the two, so don't give up just yet. (I'll tell you when to give up though.)

**P.S.** Don't mind the OC's. They're just written in order to move the plot along.


	6. Day 4

**A/N:** Alright, you HARDCORE TAKUMI FANS! This chapter is for you. I kind of took a concept and ran with it. I may have lost myself for a second.

**Just A Day In The Life… **

**Day 4**

**(She's Lost Her Marbles)**

It was the break of dawn. The morning crow cooed across the morning sky, flapping its jet black wings to another location to scavenge for food. It was at a nearby park where people walked by, on their way to school. Students walked on the sidewalks to class, carrying on about meaningless conversations. But among the most things being talked about, one of them was about a mysterious unconscious student that lied at the parks statue resembling a star. It was none other than Takuya Kanbara.

_Oh gosh. I got a massive headache. _The brunette thought to himself as he grew consciousness. _Did I drink last night? Did I have a hangover?_

Takuya opened his foggy eyes which felt like dead weights attached to his eye lids. The sun pierced through the branches of an oak tree onto his face, nearly blinding him.

"Where am I?" He thought out loud, shielding his eyes with his hand. He noticed two hazel eyes looking at him. They belonged to a beautiful girl who was unsure whether or not he was alive or dead. She had somewhat of a peculiar look on her face.

"Are you alright?" the girl asked.

"Yeah… yeah I'm fine…" Takuya's eye focused on the girl, "Hey aren't you that one girl I met on the first day of school? Rosa is it?" his voice was gravel as he recalled the girls name. He hadn't seen her since the last time they rammed into each other on his first day of school.

"Yeah it is. It's weird that I found you hear, all by yourself." She replied with no clue as to what was going on with the battered looking Takuya.

"Geez…my brain is all fuzzy. Do you mind telling me what's going on?" he finally stood to his feet as chilly breeze swept across his body, "And why is it chilly all of a sudden?"

The brunette took a look at his surroundings then at himself. He was half naked and all he had was a pair of maroon boxer briefs.

"Aaaaah!" he shrieked as he covered himself with his hands, but it was useless. "What the hell? Where are my clothes? Is this some sort of sick prank you pulled?"

"What? No! I just found you like this. You must have had one wild night." The girl was on the defense, defending her innocence from the humiliating situation.

"Wild night? Wild night?" Takuya repeated those words to himself, hoping it would jog his memory. The last thing he remembered was being at the locker room at school when Kyle and the rest of the stooges ganged up on him before everything went black.

"Those bastards!" Takuya clenched his fist as if he could envision the three of them standing before him. He would pound their faces in if he could.

"Sounds like those girls took you on for one hell of a night." Rosa assumed, flicking her hair to the side.

"They weren't girls. They were the douchebags of all douchebaggery." Takuya's clenched fist continued throbbing.

"OH?" Rosa said. She was surprised by his remark since it was not as she assumed.

"I've got to get even with Kyle and them. But before that I got to go get some clothes."

"Yeah you should get running now, before you cause a scene, pretty boy."

Takuya blushed because the nickname she gave him. This was the worst circumstances to be calling him such names, since he was emotionally vulnerable. He frantically looked to his left and right before immediately dashing from bush to bush like a ninja.

"It was nice seeing you again, Takuya!" the girl called out to him.

"You the same." Takuya replied, still looking around for another bush to hide behind.

"Nice ass, by the way!" the girl replied as she bit her lip in a seductive manner. She watched Takuya's soccer toned butt sprint along the grass.

Takuya's face turned redder than his boxers. "….Thanks?" He did not know how to take her compliment.

-xxx-

"Thanks for showing us that pastry shop, Vanessa." Zoe said wolfing down a dumpling she received from the clerk at the shop. She and her other friends, Victoria, Vanessa, and Naomi, walked back to their dorms before heading back to school for first period. During the margin of time they spent together, they got to know each other. They had a glimpsed into each other's past. Victoria and Vanessa's dad was a major casino owner, which helped put them through school, especially for their education at the academy they were attending. There mother had deceased and was introduced to a step mom. Naomi's dad was in the military and her mother was a stay-at-home Mom who owned a flower shop as a hobby.

Though, among the things they talked about, one thing remained noticeable. They talked about pressing issues … like boys.

"You have some good looking friends." Vanessa complimented. There was one in particular she was talking about.

"Um… thanks?" Zoe replied.

"Who's that one guy again? Takuya?" Victoria recalled the boy's name.

"Yeah, what about him." Zoe wondered. For some unknown reason she felt uncomfortable with where this conversation was going.

"Oh nothing. He's seems kind of cute."

Out of spontaneous predicaments, a young man sprung out of the nearby bush like a wild bushman. The girls shrieked with terror, unaware if he was a perverted mugger, or potential rapist. After further analyzing, they realized it was none other than Takuya. He was stark naked except for some maroon boxers. He looked perplex, frightened, and fidgety due to his situation.

"Takuya?" Zoe called out to him, making sure her eyes were not deceiving her at a young age.

In a split second, Takuya's face turned red before he instantly dashed in the opposite direction towards the men's' dormitory.

"Wasn't that your friend, Takuya?" Naomi asked, her mouth ajar.

"Yeah…." Zoe replied, still shocked.

"So is he normally this carefree and outrageous?" Victoria wondered, taking a bite out of her dumpling, still staring at Takuya running off.

"No… not at all." Zoe could not comprehend what just happened.

Victoria continued ogling the direction the boy ran off in. She was in a daze of admiration. "Man, he runs like a soccer player."

-xxx-

Takuya rushed into the dorms, hoping he would not encounter any officials or students. The last thing he wanted was to be caught with hardly any clothes on. He would never be able to shine his face again in public. He would be stripped of his dignity for sure.

To his fortune, there were little to no students roaming the hall. Of course a few gave him an abnormal look as he passed by, but thought nothing more of it. They were used to seeing sights like this from time to time.

Takuya reached his room number, 217, and banged on the door for minutes nonstop. Each fist pounded on the sturdy door, hoping they would get someone's attention on the inside. If anything, he needed someone to answer the door quick.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming…"JP's muffled voice could be heard on the other side.

Takuya did not get any fast door answering responses and kept pounding.

"Don't lose your shirt, alright! I'm coming."

How ironic the situation was for Takuya for him to hear that response.

The door finally opened, and JP stood on the other end with an indifferent facial expression. He looked at Takuya up and down with his tired eyes as Takuya breathed rapidly from his morning run.

JP, took a second to process the image of Takuya with no clothes, and then closed the door.

"Hey! Open up! This isn't funny."

JP opened the door again this time with a more humane and peculiar countenance. "Where have you been, dude? And where are you clothes?"

"Can't talk. I'll explain later!" Takuya brushed past JP towards the restroom that Kouichi was coming out of. "Dude where's your clothes?" Kouichi asked with a perplex expression.

"Where you partying last night?" JP continued.

"No!" Takuya replied.

"Did you lose a bet?"

"No!"

"Did you get laid?"

"NO!"

"Then what the h-hell happened?" JP demanded as he nearly chuckled towards the end of his sentence.

"Look! Kyle and his friends beat the crap out of me and left me out in the park."

"With no clothes?"

"YES!"

All this yelling caused Kouji to wake up. He looked at Takuya and closed his eyes. "I don't even want to know," he mumbled as he regained his sleep.

"Dude, that's wrong. You got to tell somebody, like the school officials." JP suggested, closing the door behind him.

"Yeah. I'm sure Sgt. Colonel would be great of assistance." Kouichi added, giving some of his great advice.

"DID I HEAR SOMEONE CALL MY NAME?" Sgt. Colonel busted the door open with inhuman strength.

"Uuuh… no." Takuya mumbled, while everyone else looked shocked. JP could have sworn he locked the door behind him.

"NO WHAT?"

"NO SIR!" The boys shouted in unison.

"GOOD! NOW MAKE YOUR BEDS AND QUIT CAUSING A SCENE! Put some clothes on boy, DAMMMIT!" the sergeant shut the door behind him.

Everything went back to normal.

"Well we got to report this to someone. This is a violation of the school code of conduct." Kouichi informed Takuya.

"What school of conduct?"

"_The_ School Code of Conduct. It's in the official handbook. Did you guys not read it?"

"I don't read much." Takuya replied.

"It's states right here…" Kouichi randomly pulled out a large orange and black book and flipped to a random page, pointing at the clause, "Its states right here on page 67, section C 11.19: Students must respect one another upon all aspects of one's wellbeing. "

Takuya stood still, dumbfounded that Kouichi knew that piece of information, let alone read the school handbook.

"Enough! Look, I already have a target on my back, with this Kyle. I don't want to make it any bigger."

"So what did you do to deserve this punishment?" JP asked.

"…All I did was out shine Kyle on the soccer field yesterday at tryouts. On top of that, he thinks I stole Zoe from him."

"HOLD ON! DID YOU?" JP's tone immediately changed to offensive and boisterous.

Takuya was surprised by the sudden outburst and change in tone"…No. No I didn't."

"…Oh good."

Takuya, Kouichi, and Kouji stared at JP peculiarly for a second as if they were trying to spot a fly on the wall.

"I guess, I'll have to deal with this later. Right, now I'm going to be late for class."

The rest of them joined in the morning ritual of preparing for school. The day could only get better for Takuya from here on out.

-xxx-

Back at the girls' dorm in room 224, Victoria, Vanessa, Zoe, and Naomi got ready for school while continuing the undisclosed discussion about Zoe's guy friends and Takuya.

"You friend Takuya is weird. What was he doing?" Vanessa wondered as she buttoned up the last buttons on her white blouse.

"I don't know. I don't look after him or anything." Zoe replied, sounding a little insecure. She slipped one of her foot through her black thigh high stockings.

"But you have to admit, he did look kinda hot… wearing nothing but those boxer briefs." Naomi slightly changed the subject.

"Yeah and the cute face he makes when he's embarrassed." Victoria added. She sounded out of character. She usually was aloof.

"Oh you guys. Stop already. He's really not _all_ that." Zoe still echoed her insecure tone from before. She even over exaggerated a few hand gestures when she spoke.

"Don't pretend you don't notice him. I bet you think of him all the time." Victoria accused the blond.

"Yeah. I bet he's your boyfriend you just haven't told us yet." Naomi joined in on teaming up against Zoe and her lack of interest in the current subject.

"N-no he's not!" Zoe replied, staring at her friends with wide eyes.

"Oh he isn't, eh? So then why are you trying to shush us?"

"Because…" Zoe paused," I don't want you all to get your hopes up, that's all."

"What are you trying to say?" said the almost dressed, Victoria.

"I'm just saying he has his eyes occupied." Zoe bashfully looked away from them.

"Who? By you?" The girls laughed while jabbing jokes towards the blond. The girls were interested in her pending answer.

"Hey I know for a fact he likes me…."

The girls fell silent, as if Zoe dropped a social bomb.

"I'm not delusional. Back in Shibuya, we had a moment together…"

"Really?" Naomi crossed her arms.

"What happened!" Vanessa leaned forward to hear the good details.

"Nothing… I couldn't say."

Naomi looked skeptically at Zoe. "I don't believe you!"

"Takuya has feelings for me… and I'll prove it!" Zoe realized what she had said, but continued with her challenge. "I'll get him to confess."

"Woah, don't you think that's a bit of a challenge?" Victoria jumped up from the bed she was sitting on to confront Zoe.

"And why's that?"

Victoria placed her hand, gently onto Zoe's shoulders. "Getting a guy to admit he likes you is like getting him to go shopping with you. They won't do it unless they no its safe and something is in it for them."

"That's absurd."

"OK? But you've been warned." Victoria added a falsetto pitch towards the end of her sentence.

Zoe smirked knowing she was going to prove the girls wrong. "Challenge accepted."

"_This_ should be _gooooood_." Vanessa clasped her hands together, more excited than a giddy school girl.

-xxx-

(Later on that morning…)

Later on the way to school, Takuya and the guys walked along the side walk. None of them looked forward to the dreadful school day as usual. They already had their eyes set for the weekend.

"So, what do you guys think of this weekend's plans" JP was still wondering about their get together. "I was thinking, how 'bout a trip to the movies, or better yet, a theme park."

"That sounds good," Kouichi replied, "That would give us a chance to check the area out."

"I thought we settled with shopping or something…" Kouji muttered, not fully aware of the conversation.

"Guys, I feel like I'm forgetting something." Takuya interrupted his friends as he struggled to remember what it was, "Did we have homework last night?"

"Yes, but you wouldn't have done it since you were out 'partying'." Kouji mocked Takuya.

Kanbara grabbed his hair in frustration. He knew he was going to get an "F" on the assignment in class.

Tommy was shocked by Kouji's choice of words. "Takuya was partying last night?"

In the meantime, Zoe and her three roommates were in front of them, chatting before the guys showed up. Zoe was the first to look the boys' way as she waved at them. She then motioned the girls to go ahead and move to class. She would catch up with them later. The girls left her alone with the guys and gave her instigating looks relating to their conversation they had in the morning.

"Hey guys! Hi Takuya." She greeted the young men, segregating Takuya for himself.

"H-hi, Zoe." Takuya was slightly taken aback, as he rubbed the back of his neck like he usually did when he was nervous about something. Even the guys were wondering what was up with Zoe's separate greeting.

"So whachya guys been up to?"

"Takuya returned to us this morning with no clothes," JP outburst, trying to further embarrass Takuya.

"Would you shut up, JP." Takuya retorted.

"Actually, I saw him too this morning." Zoe replied to JP. She then faced Takuya who was trying his best not to make eye contact. "So what was that all about"

Takuya continued sweating bullets and scratching his neck. "Oh that? It was nothing really…"

"Oh really?" Zoe slipped her hands around his biceps, while pulling him away from the guys. "Why don't you tell me _all_ about it?"

The two of them walked arm-in-arm to school, though Takuya seemed reluctant to follow her.

"Uuuuh what just happened here?" Tommy asked as if someone would answer him, "What's this I hear about Takuya partying?"

JP was baffled and outraged. "I can't believe she said hi to Takuya and not me, as if I was a nobody!"

Kouji stared at JP, apathetically. "JP, you are a nobody… you just haven't realized yet."

-xxx-

(Meanwhile in Home Room…)

Later on that day, Takuya, Kouji, Kouichi, Zoe, Victoria, and Vanessa were all in the same homeroom which was Literature with Ms. Avery. She went on to teach the class while the students read passages from their text book.

"So are you going to tell the officials about Kyle." Kouichi asked Takuya.

"No, man. I don't want any drama to spark from this." Takuya replied.

"Dude, you got to tell someone or else that guy's is just going to keep getting away with stuff like this."

Takuya glanced back at Kouichi, "The last thing I want to hear right now is Kyle's name, OK?"

Zoe looked up from her textbook at Takuya since he was whispering loudly about something. The brunette caught her eye and smiled. She smiled back and went back to reading.

"Takuya!"

Takuya's head spun around, facing the front of the class.

"Would you mind sharing with the class what is that's so important?" Ms. Avery said, as she adjusted her glasses wither index finger.

"No. That's ok."

"Takuya, that was not a suggestion."

Seeing that he was not going to weasel his way out of this, he grudgingly stood to his feet before the classroom door sprung open. In stepped an olive skin toned girl, dressed in the girl version of the school's uniform. Her black hair coursed down to her shoulders and her hazel eyes met Takuya's before it locked on to the teacher.

"And who might you be?" Ms. Avery asked, as she leaned off her desk.

"My name is Rosalyn Ramirez, and I've transferred to this classroom as my homeroom."

The students in the classroom stirred in their seats. This was the umpteenth time they had a transfer student of some kind.

"Oh how nice. We're glad to have you." Ms. Avery greeted the girl with a warm welcome. "Now how about you sit over there next to… Izumi."

Zoe's attention locked onto the new girl as she made her way over to her new seat.

In the meantime, Takuya thought this was a good opportunity to sit back down. The girl, who has been known as Rosa, sat down as well and looked over at Takuya. Takuya stared back, unsure what to make of the situation. She waved her fingers at him, showing a cutesy smile. Takuya smiled back, and then turned around quickly, facing the front. His face was slightly pink.

Disgruntled by what transpired between them, Zoe looked at both the new girl and Takuya, trying to connect the pieces to this unsolved acquaintance.

"I'm still not done with you Mr. Kanbara." Ms. Avery called out to the young boy. "And by the way, would everyone please turn in their assignment from last night?"

This really wasn't Takuya's day.

-xxx-

Takuya was at his locker placing his books in his bag, exchanging them for the one's in his locker. He gazed at the pink detention slip in his hand that he well deserved for disrupting class and not finishing assignments.

"I mean, couldn't she have just given me a fair warning?" Takuya said, pouting at the slip of paper. Maybe it would suddenly disappear if he starred at it long enough.

"Well, that's what happens when you stay up all night, partying." Kouji quipped.

"Rrrrrrrrr" Irritated, Takuya crumbled the detention slip in his clenched fists. He grew tired of the continual insults from his so called friends.

Meanwhile, Zoe was listening to the guys' conversation from abroad. She could not clearly understand what they were talking about, but over something about partying last night. This poked her attention. She watched the guys continue giving Takuya a hard time while Rosa, the new girl, walked up to them.

"Hey… Takuya, is it?" the girl asked as she approached the auburn hair boy. He stared blankly at her, waiting for what she had to say.

"Uh hey, Rosa. What is it?" Takuya nervously exchanged eye contact with his friends and the girl.

"I just wanted to say hi and that I have some good news."

"O…K?" Takuya glanced at Kouji and Kouichi with a clueless look on his face. "Can you guys give us a minute?"

The twins were shocked at what they were hearing as they glanced at one another, simultaneously. Takuya needed some alone time with an unknown girl? One could only assume what was going on between them, especially with the way Takuya has behaving secretive lately.

"Sure," Both twins replied as they whistled while walking away to their next class.

Once the coast was clear Takuya faced the girl, "So what's this _great_ news?"

"I just wanted to let you know, Kyle won't be bothering you anymore."

"Why?"

"Because he was suspended."

"What? How?"

She reached in her purse and pulled out her cellphone. She began rummaging through her phone's database. "I took it upon myself to tell the school officials what you told me, about how Kyle harassed you," she found what she was looking for in her phone, "I even showed them pictures of you I took this morning to prove my case."

"You did what?" Takuya grabbed the phone in frenzy."You took pictures of me without my permission?"

"What?" the girl shrugged as if she didn't realize what she did. "Look, you should be happy, now that that creep is no longer around."

With her subtle sassiness she took the phone back from Takuya and sashayed back to her class.

"You better get rid of those pictures!" Takuya exclaimed, hoping that whatever was left of his reputation, didn't go up in smokes… or on cyberspace.

In the meantime, Zoe watched the two and their body language. From what she was seeing so far, made her nervous. Seeing Takuya ask for privacy from the twins, then grabbing the girls phone after some heated dialogue made her wonder if they were having a "fling". She couldn't bear the thought of it but it remained prominent in her mind.

"Oh no, Zoe. Looks like someone's beating you to the punch." Victoria came up from behind Zoe teasing her about Takuya's love interest.

"I can't let this happen. Not after all the work I've put in." Zoe muttered.

"Um, what work?" Victoria wondered.

"Nevermind!" Zoe exclaimed as she walked over to Takuya.

Over the couple of days, Sheila and her other two, trio members noticed Zoe and Takuya together from time to time. Sheila was disgusted with Zoe and her current fame she was gaining from having friends on her first day of school. She was afraid it would only grow exponentially, especially with her friendship with Takuya since he was on the school Soccer team. He was considered a potential star player as people were mentioning the boy's name from time to time. He was a hot addition to the school team, people would say.

"Who does that new girl think she is?" Sheila rhetorically asked her two friends.

"I know right." Camille replied as she flicked her black hair locks aside.

"Does she really think her relationship with that boy is going to make her popular?" said Giselle wither country twang.

Sheila listened to her friends' remarks. She liked it when they agreed with her side of things, which was all the time. "She must be desperate," she said aloud.

"She better recognize that no one is more interesting, smarter, or beautiful than ME! MUAHAHAHAHA!"

Sheila's two friends agreed with their leader, but flinched when they heard Sheila's evil laugh. It was ear piercing and annoying.

-xxx-

(Meanwhile in the library…)

Takuya and pals were all seated at a table reading books for their class assignment. They had to read a book and write a book report which was due next week.

"Man, this is confusing!" JP denounced his book report as he flipped a page back to reread the same passage for the twentieth time. The plotline was not making any sense to him.

"Tell me about it. Girls have been acting weird to me lately." Takuya was day dreaming towards the roof.

With disbelief, JP looked up from his book, glaring at Takuya. "I was talking about this book report, idiot."

"Oh sorry… it's just that, I can't help but wonder what's been going on lately."

Both Kouji and Kouichi looked up from the stories they were reading. It was Kouichi that asked the pending question that lied on both twins mind.

"So what was that girl talking to you about?"

"Who?"

"That new girl, Rosa!"

"Oh… she just told me that she got Kyle suspended."

"How?" Kouichi asked. He was surprised to hear the news after trying to convince Takuya to do the same.

"She told the school officials what happened to me and showed them my picture she took as proof."

The guys attention, perked. "She took a picture of you in the morning?"

"Yeah."

"See! I knew you were screwing around with someone." JP said with accusation.

"What are ya talkin' about?" Takuya's voice went into falsetto.

"Well with all the secrecy that shrouds you lately, one can only imagine."

"You guys are exaggerating. Me and her have nothing to do with each other."

"And what about Zoe? What's with you and her?" Kouji retorted.

"…nothing." Takuya dryly replied.

Meanwhile, as this productive conversation commenced, Zoe and her girlfriends watched the boys from afar at a separate table. They pretended to be reading newspapers while, spying on the group of boys.

"So what do you think there talking about?" Vanessa asked, as if the other girls could read minds and she couldn't.

"Who knows, but it looks like a hot debate whatever it is." Naomi replied.

Zoe reminisces on the events that had taken place with Takuya and the strange new girl. She had to save Takuya and also win her bet with the girls.

"Ok, this is my chance to warm up to Takuya a little. Then I'll eventually go for the kill." Zoe sprung out of her chair and placed last year's newspaper on the table. She straightened out her uniform and hair before she walked over to the guys table.

"What she trying to do?" Naomi asked the rest of the girls.

"She overheard, Takuya talking to some new girl in our class. They may have something going on between them." Victoria answered Naomi, while looking at an interesting news column about fitness.

"I see…" Naomi replied as she and he girls watched Zoe go after Takuya.

Zoe was just a few feet away from Takuya and her heart was throbbing. She didn't know why. She was use to talking normally to Takuya before, but now that girls were after him she felt awkward around him as if she was jealous for anyone else talking to him.

"Hey Takuya!" Zoe said as she dramatically flicked her hair to the side.

Takuya disconnected his attention from the guys and focused on Zoe.

"Oh… Hey, Zoe. What are you doing here in the library?"

"Oh you know me. How I _love_ to read books." She flinched on the inside. She knew that that was further from the truth. She didn't read as if it were a hobby.

"Oh… that's good. That's good you read."

"Yeah," she nodded her head, enthused by his reply. "So how are you? Anything you would like to tell me?"

"No not really. I'm fine." The boy laughed nervously.

"Oh really." Zoe feigned a smile, while on the inside she was ready to bite Takuya's head off for lying. "Well anytime you need someone to talk to," She rubbed Takuya's shoulder and arm, "I'm here for you."

With her token of reliability, she patted Takuya on the back of his hand and walked away to an aisle of books. Takuya eyed the entire arm she touched for a second than watched Zoe sashay away with grace in her footsteps and more bounce than usual in her hips.

"Oh my gosh! Guys did you just see that?" Takuya asked his friends, still eyeing the back of Zoe.

"You're damn right we saw that. What the hell was that, Takuya?" JP said, with a hiss in his voice. He was outrage at Takuya's luck with the ladies.

"I don't know?"

"I swear all the ladies are after you today. Are you wearing some sort of seductive pheromones? I betcha it's something new in that AXE body spray."

Takuya faced his friends. "It can't be. I didn't take a shower this morning."

"Well something has to be going on. Maybe you did something last night that you haven't told us." Kouichi said, implying something.

"Guys for the last time. I wasn't partying nor was I with any female last night," Takuya defended his alibi, "You know what? I need to get out of here and get some air. You guys and these books are driving me crazy." Takuya sprung out of his seat and walked in no particular direction, looking for the exit.

As he left, JP sniffed the air to make sure there wasn't something peculiar floating around.

Takuya walked down sever aisles of book before he saw Zoe reading a book. She was standing in an elegant pose, focusing her attention on the words of each page she read. She looked up and saw Takuya looking back at her.

"Ah, excuse me. I was trying to find my way out of here." Takuya spun around to continue his search for the elusive exit.

"Hold on Takuya." Zoe called out to the boy as he stopped in place. He then slowly turned around, a little bit unease.

"Could you do be a gentleman and do me a huge favor?

"…Sure." Takuya worried what this huge favor could be.

"Could you help me get that book on the top shelf… please?" Zoe pointed to a random book on the top shelf while smiling like an adorable doll.

Takuya couldn't help but succumb to her cuteness at the moment. He looked at the hardcover she was talking about and walked over to her. With ease, he reached for the book and handed it to her. She watched him for a second as she told him thanks and reached for the hardcover. Her warm hands clasped his as she gazed into his brown eyes. For an instant, they got lost in each other's eyes.

"Here you go!" he released it into her hand, slightly blushing after he read the cover of the book.

"Thanks-" Zoe blushed madly after reading the cover of the book herself. It read "Sexy Time for the Young Ones"

They both gawked at one another, realizing how awkward the situation was.

"Hahaha! What kind of book is this? This isn't what I wanted? I thought it said something else, HAHAHA!" Zoe laughed, nervously.

"Yeah, hahaha." Takuya chuckled, sweat dropping behind his neck.

"Why would they even have book like this in the library?" Zoe anxiously laughed some more.

"Maybe for _reference._" Takuya teased. This was not the moment to be cracking jokes.

Zoe frantically threw the book on the top shelf and walked past Takuya, "Well I gotta go!"

Takuya watched her leave with suspicion clouding his judgment. She really wasn't acting herself lately.

-xxx-

Later on in the day, Takuya, Kouji, Kouichi, JP and Zoe were in Chemistry class. Not much had happened up to this point of the year, but this time the teacher finally gave the students a chance to experience "Chemistry" first hand.

"Alright class. Today well will conduct an experiment, and I want you to pair up with a partner." The teacher announced to the class, and all the students paired up with their best friends.

"Come here brother!" Kouichi gave Kouji an unexpected hug.

"Get off of me!" Kouji pushed the short haired twin aside.

Takuya walked over to Kouji, "Hey buddy. Want to be partners?"

"Sorry, I'm taken." Kouji admitted with a serious tone.

"What? But were always partners."

"Well not this time."

"Dude, how come?"

"Takuya, everytime we end up in a group together, I wind up nearly failing the project with you."

Takuya folded his arms defiantly wondering why the boy would come to such an awful conclusion. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you're a horrible partner."

"Well gee, thanks a lot." Takuya sounded sarcastic.

"Don't mention it." Kouji deadpanned.

The auburn haired boy ignored Kouji's last remark and faced JP. He was his last hope.

"Hey, JP! Want to be partners?"

"Now why would I want to do something stupid like that?"

"C'mon man! You're the last friend I have here."

JP shook his head. "Sorry man. I was going to ask Zoe anyways."

On cue, Zoe walked over to the two guys as her hair flicked from side to side.

"Hey… Zoe." JP twitched his eyebrows with sex appeal, "Want to be partners?"

Zoe ignored his sexual innuendo. She had other plans instead.

"Actually I was thinking of being with Takuya." She smiled.

Takuya did a double take. "Um sure. That's fine."

JP's head turned an angry red, ready to explode with rage. He never was the lucky one.

"OK!" Zoe placed both of her hands around Takuya's arm and walked him away to their station where they would explore the world of chemistry together.

JP's eye twitched with envy, "Fine. I don't care. Don't care at all. I'll just _be_ by myself."

The teacher took his place in front of the class to get the experiment started. "OK people, put you goggles on before you get started. I want you to test the properties of different metals and afterwards, you and your partner will answer questions from the textbook on chapter 3. You can do this at home if you like, but turn it in tomorrow, when you will be presenting."

The students of the class began working away on the experiments at hand.

Zoe eyed Takuya the minute they begun and she didn't break eye contact. "So…" she stood next to the boy as she twirled a strand of her hair, "It looks like we have biology together."

The brunette gave the girl a weird look. "This is Chemistry."

"Oh, I see you're feeling it too." Zoe joked. She played the same joke she remembered Takuya playing on her back in Junior High.

"Haha, very funny. You still remember?" the boy replied

"How could I forgot. It was so lame." The girl teased. After joking around they both reached for the Bunsen burner, simultaneously. They both clasped the object at the same time, their warm hands feeling each other's warmth.

"Oh go ahead…" Takuya released his grip, letting the girl do the work of lighting the torch.

For the remainder of the class time, everyone conducted the series of experiments given to them as they lit different strands of metal upon the Bunsen burner and drenched it in hydrochloric acid. Kids watched in awe at their discoveries, while some simply fell asleep. JP remained to himself for the most part, watching Takuya and Izumi from the shadows like a stalking raven. Kouji and Kouichi were getting along for the majority of their partnership except for when one of them wanted to be in charge.

For the entire time, Takuya could feel Zoe's eyes continually focusing on him. From time to time, the blond would give him warm signs of affection by inquisitively watching him, listening to what he had to say, or placing her hand on his hand whenever she felt like it. Takuya had to admit, it made him feel wonderful inside, but he still could not understand why she was behaving this way. Girls can be unpredictable he thought.

-xxx-

After the last period of school, the guys hung out around their lockers, discussing what they would do after school. JP decoded the combinations to his locker before he exchanged a few books for some others into his bag.

"So you guys want to watch last night's episode of 'Deadly Truth'?" JP asked, the twins. He sounded lethargic like a worker that had been working all day.

"No, I think I'm going to be studying tonight, and work on my Chemistry Lab homework." Kouichi replied as he closed his locker. He slung his backpack behind his back, ready to go home.

"We need to get started on it right away. I don't want to fail another project in my academic life again." Kouji said, in addition to what his brother stated.

Kouichi faced his brother, "Yeah, if we work together on it tonight, we should be done in no time."

"In that case, count me in." JP replied, not want to miss out on the opportunity to study with a group of friends.

"What about you Takuya? Are you going to be studying with Zoe?" Kouichi asked.

"I don't know… I'm probably going to work on it myself."

"What? Without Zoe?"

"Dude with your luck. You probably would end up_ making_ out with her."

"Aghahahahahaha, that's funny JP. Me and Zoe making out. Pffffft like what are the odds of that happening heheheh," Takuya switched from nervously being in denial to being serious, "But seriously guys. I think Zoe is coming down with something. She isn't acting like herself lately."

"And what makes you say that?" Kouichi asked.

"Have you seen her lately around me? She's been extra friendly and she can't seem to stop touching or holding my hand."

"And you're complaining, why?" JP asked, with a demanding tone. He would love to trade places with the boy.

Takuya faced the large guy. "It's not complaining… just an observation."

Zoe watched the group of guys talk from a safe distance. She could only imagine what they were talking about, especially Takuya. Her luck with him didn't seem to peak yet.

"So how's it going with this confession?" Naomi asked Zoe as she walked up behind her. The female twins were also behind Naomi.

"I still haven't got him to say much. I've tried a lot of things. I've tried being extra nice to him. I even tried holding his hand from time to time by showing affection."

"Well it looks like you're going to have to go above and beyond." Victoria said as she approached the girl from behind.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh you know. You probably going to have to get more in touch with you emotions and get down and dirty."

Zoe's facial expression told the story of a frightened child that had seen a scary movie when he/she was not supposed to.

Victoria nearly got in Zoe's personal space, eyeing her with a mischievous expression. "Guys like girls that get down and dirty."

Zoe gulped. "I guess you're right," she said nervously, changing her outlook on the dilemma as she tossed her hair in the wind; "Desperate times call for desperate measures!"

The girl broke away from the group of friends and strutted herself over where the boys were hanging out. Her prime target was Takuya as she carefully walked up behind him. Her hand gracefully reached and gave Takuya's butt an aggressive squeeze.

"Geez, what the-" Takuya's voice escaped his throat in a high pitch. He turned around to see who the culprit was.

"Hi Takuya!"

"Hey… Zoe… What are you doing." Takuya squirmed, unsure of what to think of Zoe's new way of greeting him. He covered his rear to make sure it did not happen again somehow.

"So after school? You think we could meet up sometime and finish that Chemistry Lab assignment?"

"Uh… I can't… you see… I have… soccer practice." Takuya remembered his duties as a school soccer player, "Yeah, I have soccer practice after school and I have to get ready for it soon, sooo… catch you later."

Takuya dashed off in the opposite direction like a ninja.

"Is he avoiding me?"

"Of course not," JP answered, "Me on the other hand… I'm here! I'm available! We can study together after school… if you _know_ what I mean."

Zoe ignored him and pranced off in the direction Takuya took.

"Me! You! Together! 'Studying'!" JP went on, despite Zoe's lack of interest. Even his fellow guys were shaking their head in disgrace.

-xxx-

After school, outside on the soccer field, the freshmen soccer team did various drills that consisted of dibbling and sustaining their stamina throughout a match. The vigorous exercise placed them through turmoil and suffering as each one of them would fatigue in the hot blistering sun.

Takuya jogged off to the side of the field to catch a stray ball. He placed his foot on top and let it glide it's away around the circumference to the bottom, undulating the ball upwards. He caught the ball and proceeded in throwing it back in for play.

"WHEEEEEW! GO TAKUYA!" up in the bleachers was a group of students watching the practice match, but the most prominent one of them was Zoe screaming her best friends name out as if he were a superstar soccer player.

Takuya's hair stood on end. He jerked his attention towards the bleachers to see the blond cheering his name. She was wild and exuberant to see him play.

"Dude, you have your own personal cheerleader?" one of Takuya's soccer teammates pointed out Zoe wailing Takuya's name in the stands.

"She's not my cheerleader. She some crazy girl I call friend." Takuya admitted and continued playing.

"YEAH TAKUYA! SEND THAT BALL FLYING SKY HIGH!" Zoe went on.

People around the girl questioned her demeanor and excessive interest in the particular boy. She realized she was being too loud and had to tone it down before a random security officer escorted her off the benches.

Unknown to her awareness, Kyle showed up to game right next to her and took a seat.

"Hey!" he said in a smooth voice as he sat down. He looked ruggedly handsome, being the popular student he was.

"Kyle? What are you doing up here? Shouldn't you be on the field practicing?"

"Naw, I got suspended for a while."

Zoe was shocked to hear the news. "Really… why?"

"No need to go into detail," the boy said dryly as he eyed one particular player on the field: Takuya. "I'm sorry if I came off a little too strong last time we met but I was looking forward to meeting you again."

Zoe's heart skipped. This was the first time all day she actually felt someone noticing her, especially a popular guy for that matter. For a minute she completely forgot that she was there for Takuya.

"Um… thanks." The girl said as she brushed hair to the side, avoiding drawn eye contact.

The students around Zoe marveled that she was speaking to the popular Kyle Konnor. They could not believe the amount of interest Kyle was giving the girl. Even Sheila and her girls grimaced with jealousy from the side.

"Who does she think she is?" Sheila squealed. She was outraged. To her, Zoe had bitten off more than she could chew.

"She's sparked Kyle's interest for some time now. It won't be long before they go out." Giselle remarked.

"I cannot let this happen! I have to teach her a lesson," Sheila's eyes wandered towards the field where Takuya was standing, "And I think I know where to start."

With her eerie statement, the three girls stood up and left the bleachers.

"So I was thinking… you and me. Tonight. Your treat." Kyle suggested to the surprised Zoe.

Zoe's interest sparked. She had to admit, this Kyle guy was giving her more attention Takuya was at the moment. He was too busy on the game he never looked up at her or noticed Kyle stealing Zoe from him.

"That's an interesting offer and I-" she cut off when she noticed that the game was over, and Takuya was sitting on a bench off the field, packing his stuff. Rosa came up to him with a gym bag. This was the second time Zoe had seen her with Takuya and she began to worry.

"Hey stranger!" Rosa greeted Takuya, who was changing his shoes.

"Oh, hey?" Whatcha doing here?"

"Just thought I come buy and give you this." She opened the bag revealing Takuya's old athletes outfit.

"My soccer gear! Where'd you find it?" the boy stood to his feet with excitement. He was ready to receive the retrieved items.

"I found them in a trashcan nearby the park and figured it must have been yours."

Takuya, with near insanity, embraced the girl in a hug. "Thank you so much!"

"Easy there, fellow. You're all sweaty." Rosa said, barely embracing him.

Takuya let go and bashfully backed away, giving her some space. "Sorry about that, but I'm glad you found my stuff."

Zoe's eye twitched with envy and malice. For certain, depicting from the situation, she could tell something serious was going on between Takuya and this Rosa girl. It all made sense to her now as her mind jumped to conclusions. The reason Takuya was running around half naked this morning must have something to do with the girl and what they "did" last night. And this morning with the phone must had something to do with Takuya not calling her back from last night's, "one night stand". But now that she was returning his clothes to him, he was somewhat relieved and happy for her great act of kindness. She had to admit it was one incredible plot twist that she did not see coming either.

"Hold on. I got to go." Zoe left Kyle hanging as she chased after Takuya.

Kyle growled in frustration. This was the second time she dissed him because of Takuya. He had to win her heart… even if it meant paying that Takuya a painful visit.

-xxx-

(Off at the Guys' Dormitory)

Takuya's foot dragged the whole way back to his dorm. He was in a funk and he had to get out of it. With all that had taken place, confusion haunted him like nothing else. Was Zoe truly coming on to him? Was she showing her true feelings? If the answer was yes, then he would be shoving them to the side which would end up hurting her in the end sooner or later. Before he could make up his mind about the circumstances, he needed a nice long nap to recuperate from today's shenanigans.

"I can't wait to hit the bed…" Takuya dragged his foot up the stair to the second floor of his dorm. "I could use a shower and a nice long nap. Yeah."

As he approached his door he noticed a note at the doorknob. He snatched it and read the lettering…

_We went to the school library to study._

_We'll see you when we get back_

_- (JP, Kouji, and Kouichi)-_

Takuya crumbled the note in his hand with a sense of satisfaction. He would have the place all to himself at last. He opened the door, about to make his way in when he was interrupted by a voice.

"Hey, Takuya." Rosa called the boy's name as she stood behind him. The boy shrieked, scared that someone was behind him the whole time under his awareness, "Do you like follow me where ever I go?"

"No?" the girl replied. It almost looked like she was trying to hide the truth.

"Rosa? What are you doing here?" the boy hissed to a mere whisper, "This is the guys dorms. You can't be here."

Although he was correct that a girl could not be seen in the boys' dormitory and vice versa, it happened all the time for various reasons, such as emergency "get togethers".

"I know but I realized you forgot your chemistry book at school. It must have fallen out your book bag. I had to give it to you."

Takuya looked at the book. He was not glad to see it but he knew he needed the textbook to finish his assignment.

"Thanks…" the boy took the book from her and went inside his room. He threw the chemistry book on the bed. He turned around to close the door, but Rosa was inside his room, exploring the area.

"So this is your place?"

"Hey? What are you doing in here? If my head master finds out I have a girl in my room, he'd kill me… and you."

"Oh stop. That won't happen," the girl walked over to the door, "Besides, I was just leaving."

Before she could open the door, there was a loud knock. Both Takuya and Rosa froze in place, filled with guilt. Takuya hysterically pointed Rosa to hide inside his closet, until he said otherwise. She replied back by profusely shaking her head, but she had no choice.

"Who is it?" Takuya asked the door. At this moment, Rosa rushed inside the closet and closed the door.

"Its me…" the door opened, "Zoe."

Takuya's eyes flew out of their sockets. "He-hey! Z-Zoe… What a surprise! What are you doing here…. in my dorm room…which was meant for boys only."

"Oh stop it silly. I got permission to come here since we have some studying to do, remember?"

The back of Takuya's neck was drenched with sweat and it was from the soccer practice.

"By the way are you in here with somebody I could have sworn I heard a voice…"

"NO! Not at all! It was probably me you heard, since I talk to myself from time to time."

Zoe looked at the nervous boy with skepticism in her eyes. "O…K?"

She walked over to the boy and stood in front of him. "I see you already have your book ready, so let's get started."

She plopped herself on top Takuya's bed and took her school satchel off. She dug her hand around for a voice recorder she stuck in there in order to capture Takuya's confession. She had to be prepared just in case something potentially happened.

"Come on. Sit down." She grabbed Takuya by the waist buckle and yanked him backwards on the bed. "And take that bag off of you." She removed his backpack from him without his will."

"Ok, I get it… you want me to be comfortable." The boy straightened out his school uniform as he opened up his chemistry book so they could begin.

-xxx-

(30 minutes later…)

Several long boring minutes past and not a single word passed between them. Takuya had his back against the bed, while sitting down on the floor. Zoe was sitting on the bed with her textbook in her lap.

"OK, for number ten," Zoe read the question out of the book, "What are some of the unique properties of magnesium when ignited?"

Takuya was fast asleep. The boy did not hear a single word as a snot bubble swelled from his nose.

"Takuya?"

Still no response.

"TAKUYA!"

"FOUR! The answer's four!" Takuya awoke with a dazed look on his face. He was unaware of what he was doing previous to the unsuspected nap.

"Takuuuuyaaaa," Zoe moaned, tapping him on the shoulder, "You got to focus."

"I can't. This is _so_ boring."

Both remained quiet with uncaring faces. Zoe had to do something in order to get the boy to stay awake and finish this project. At the same time she also had to connect with Takuya on an emotional level. Perhaps at that point he would express his feelings for her. She knew what she had to do as a mischievous idea popped into her mind.

"Hold on… I'll be right back." Zoe shined a smirk and winked at the boy as she left towards the restroom.

The clueless boy eyed her as she gracefully walked into the restroom and closed the door behind her.

In the meantime, Rosa poked her head out of the closet. Takuya wildly threw his arm towards the door, signaling her to leave now that she had a chance. By the time she got the message, the restroom door flew open, and Rosa hid back in the closet.

"So where we?" Zoe said as she leaned on the door way like a super model posing for _Vogue_. While she was in the bathroom, she made some adjustments to her uniform. Her hair was fluffed up for volume. Her skirt was hiked up an inch shorter than before and her tie was loosened. She unbuttoned the top two buttons on her blouse, exposing some major cleavage. Takuya could hardly contain himself as his sex appeal readings skyrocketed off the charts.

"Wow! I mean… um… Zoe! You-you look like… you look like you could button up a little." Takuya nearly slapped himself for saying that.

Zoe disregarded his remarks as she slowly advanced towards him, her hips bouncing from side to side as she kicked her shoes off. She had a fierce, yet adorable expression on her face. She bit her lower lip to accentuate the full of effect of her attire.

Takuya immediately stood to his feet to have a fighting chance to the oncoming sexiness. If he was going to go down he was going to go down with a fight… or die trying. He started flipping through pages of the book, looking for something to distract Zoe, but she kept coming.

"It says here, sparks may fly when bonds between two atoms merge together… CRAP! This isn't helping!"

The blond was right in front of him and placed her hand over the book. She gently took it out of his hand and tossed it over her should like yesterday's newspaper with no interesting feeds.

"Ahem… Zoe, I don't know think we should be doing this."

"And why not, Taki?" Zoe pouted her lips. The "pouting lips of doom" were upon Takuya. He didn't stand a chance.

"Are you trying to seduce me, Izumi Orimoto?"

"Is it working?" she replied as she pushed him onto the bed. His body bounced on the mattress like a basketball. Dread filled his eyes as he slowly backed away from the girl that was crawling on the bed like a prowling tiger, ready to overcome its prey.

"Zoeeeeee…. Stop this. Stop this right now!"

She giggled as she slowly climbed on top of his leg, then his upper torso. Her warm body touched his as she sat on his stomach. Her green eyes seemed distant, peering into his. She crept a seductive grin on her face.

"OK I get it…haha… joke's _ooooover_. If you're trying to find a place to nap, you could scoot over a bit onto Kouji's bed. It's very quite-" Zoe placed her index finger onto his lips, shunning him from speaking.

"Sssssh… no need talk," She smirked as her hands traced around his lips and around his face, "You look cute when you squirm."

The boy grabbed the girls hand and clasped it in between his, giving her hand few pats on the back. "Zoe? Are you sure you're, OK?

"Of course I'm OK, silly. I've never been better." Zoe chuckled. She closed her eyes as she her smile shined through Takuya's feeble defenses.

"Heh-heh…something's wrong."

"Well of course something is wrong. You've been neglecting me all day." Zoe's tone changed from light and happy to caring yet serious.

The boy was taken off guard by her confession, especially the tone of voice she delivered it through.

"N-not really… it's just that I'm not sure why you're acting this way."

"Can't you see?" Zoe asked. She took both of the boys hands, placing one on her hips and the other on her left bosom. "I care about you, Takuya, and I wouldn't let anything happen to you, or let anyone hurt you."

"Z-Zoe.." Takuya stammered while his cheeks turned a beat red. He could not believe he was touching Zoe's C sized breasts.

"I just want to know if you feel the same for me."

Takuya remained motionless babbling like a bafoon, "I-I… well I…" he couldn't find the words to express his feelings.

"Maybe this will clear you mind…" she said as she slowly went in for a kiss. Takuya eyed her succulent peach lips as they eased in on his. He slowly gave in as he closed his eyes and waited for impact.

Suddenly, the closet door opened, and out came Rosa as she fell to the floor. "Ouch…" she looked up after rubbing her lower back, "Sorry if I'm interrupting something."

The incident cut off Takuya and Zoe intimate moment as Zoe's eyes widened with shock.

"Who is she?" she asked Takuya, "Isn't she that new girl I've been seeing you with? What's she doing here?"

"I swear I don't know how she got there. She must have wandered in there somehow."

"I don't believe you!"

"I swear Zoe. Its not what it looks like." Takuya could not help but feel defensive, even though he had nothing to be guilty for.

"And what does it look like Takuya?"

"Um, no need to yell or anything. I can tell I must have interrupted something so I'll be leaving now." Rosa headed to the door and opened it. Surprisingly, on the other side was Kyle Konnor, and he looked like he was about to smash something.

"Kyle?" Zoe exclaimed.

"Zoe?" Kyle replied. He looked at the boy she was on top of, "TAKUYA!"

"Kyle? I thought you were suspended?" Takuya asked.

"I was… NO THANKS TO YOU!" he looked over at Rosa, "And who are you?"

"Me? I'm Rosa, but I'm really nobody."

"… Whatever!" the angry teen faced Takuya and Zoe.

"So now you're trying to steal Zoe from me, again?"

"Dude, clearly she's not interested in you as you can she's all over me… literally."

This sparked a fuse in Kyle's nerves as he sprang after Takuya, his malice eyes set on killing the boy.

Takuya with incredible skill, managed to roll Zoe and him off the bed on the other side. It was now him that was on top of the girl.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Zoe said with discomfort from the boy being on top of her.

"I'm getting us out of harm's way."

"I think it's you he wants."

'Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!" Kyle appeared behind them with a chair over his head. He flung it down but Takuya was quicker than him. He grabbed Zoe by the hand and both of them made a run for it out the door. Kyle followed close behind them while Rosa carelessly following as well. She didn't see why not.

"Let go of me!" Zoe yelled.

"What? Just a minute ago you couldn't let go of me?"

The four teens ran around the second floor until they got downstairs in the lobby where a few students where socializing. Takuya and Zoe ran past them, but in the process caught their foot on the loose woven rug. They both fell with a hard thud, right next to each other.

"Ow, are you alright."

"I'm fine…" Zoe replied, looking away from the boys eyes. She was hurt.

"Well. Well. Well, Tatonka. It looks like you're run ends here." Kyle slowly paced his steps toward the couple.

"Wait, Kyle! Before you pummel me to death, you have to realize that you did this to yourself. You're the one that bullied me and left me at that park."

"Yeah, but you went and snitched to the school officials and got me suspended, you little punk. And for _that_, you're going to pay _dearly_."

At this moment, they were causing a scene. The few students nearby watched the argument between the two. Even Kouji, Kouichi, and JP made their way through doors, returning from their trip to the library. They were confused as to what was going on.

"NO! I didn't snitch! I swear!"

"I don't believe you 'cause if you didn't then who did, huh?"

"I did." Everyone faced Rosa as she slowly walked down the steps. "I was the one that got you suspended. I talked to the school officials after Takuya told me his story this morning. I figured someone had to report it to the officials, and the pictures I showed them were more than enough proof."

Zoe gasped after realizing what was going on. Her mind suddenly flashed back to this morning and throughout the day when Takuya behaved suspiciously. This whole time she thought Takuya's relationship with the girl was intimate when really it was as normal as it could possibly be. Kyle and Rosa's confession explained a lot as to why Takuya was acting weird lately, especially in the morning.

Kyle stood wide-eyed from the twist of events. But it didn't matter. He still wanted his vengeance on someone, and that someone happened to be Takuya.

"Well Taki boy. It looks like she saved you… but your still going down for taking Zoe from me."

"She was never yours to begin with!" Takuya realized he had to shut his mouth sometimes.

As Kyle took premeditative steps, he popped his knuckles in aggravation. He wanted to beat up Takuya till nobody could recognize him.

"What are you doing, Kyle?" another female voice echoed in the lobby. Surprisingly, it was Sheila and she seemed displeased with Kyle. Everyone questioned why she was there.

"Sheila what are you doing here?" Kyle asked.

"I could ask you the same thing?" she replied with a disgruntled look on her face, "Why have you been chasing this girl around?"

"What does it matter, who I try to go out with? You and I broke up, remember?"

All the new kids to the school dropped their jaws. Another bomb was dropped on the situation. The two most popular teens in school once had a relationship… go figure.

"No! I didn't _break up_ with you. I said I was done with you, and that this relationship wasn't over till I said it was over."

Kyle had a stumped look on his face, as well as Takuya, Zoe and the rest of the gang.

"So what are you trying to say?"

"That I still love you and that this break between us is finally over," she feigned a few tears as she came close to the former star athlete. "Now come here you stud muffin."

"Aw, come here you naughty girl. I have to admit I missed you so much!"

The happy couple embraced one another for a long minute. Sheila than wrapped her legs around his torso and arms around his neck as they performed a long kissing session before the public. They had truly missed each other.

Takuya and Zoe on the other hand, were as confused and dumfounded as everyone else at the moment. They watched as the two continued to make out as they left out the door, passing by Kouji, Kouichi, and JP.

"What just happened here?" Kouji wondered.

"And why are you here Zoe?" JP asked.

"What happened to you two?" Kouichi observed how the two looked flustered. Their clothes were messy and unkempt.

Takuya and Zoe gawked at each other as their cheeks grew redder. They abruptly broke eye contact, looking in the opposite position with a sense of guilt on their faces.

"Hold on! You two didn't do what I think you did?" JP's mind jumped to conclusions.

"Huh?" Takuya looked up at JP.

"Of c-course not… why would you even think of such a thing." Zoe covered up for Takuya.

JP calmed down, being fooled by Zoe's exaggerative reply. "Oh… never mind."

And with that, no one spoke of it again (Until later on Takuya bragged about Zoe's flirtation with him to JP. JP nearly killed him for the incident).

-xxx-

(BGM: **Never Say Never**, by The Fray)

Today was a wild and unpredictable day for Takuya, to say the least. He had experienced so many encounters of fear, uneasiness, and arousal it was almost overwhelming. He stood atop of the school building, leaning against a fence separating him from falling to his death. He had to admit that the view from up here was nice and vivacious as the sun painted beautiful colors of red, orange, and drops of purple across the sun setting sky. Today was wild and unpredictable day, but for some strange reason he would not mind going through it again, knowing what he knew now.

"So…" Zoe started as she walked from behind the door leading to the roof of the school. Her uniform was more modest than a few hours ago, "The guys said I would find you up here."

After Takuya glanced back at the gorgeous girl, he faced the sunset one more time.

"So how are you?" Zoe asked as she stood next to the boy.

"I'm fine actually," the boy continued looking straight, not wavered by anything, "It's really nice up here."

Zoe gazed in the same direction Takuya was facing and embraced the fresh outdoors. "Yeah, I can see why you've been up here for a while."

Zoe reluctantly changed the subject to recent matters between their friendship, "About today Takuya…" the boy faced her unfazed by her nervousness, "The reason I was acting all 'weird' lately was because…."

"No need to tell me. I already know."

"W-what? You do?" Zoe stammered. She was embarrassed.

"Yeah your girlfriends filled me in..."

Zoe was slightly perplexed and frustrated that her friends would rat her out.

"They said you were jealous between me and Rosa. You thought we had a relationship going on, and you didn't want that to happen since you cared so much about me," Takuya flashed one of his notorious smiles that could get him out of trouble, " They say one doesn't know what they have until its gone, wouldn't you say, Izumi?"

"Uh… yeah…heh-heh. That was the reason..." Zoe nervously laughed, realizing the boy was only half right. He didn't know that those feelings she expressed were real. She did have feelings for him and wanted to get him to confess his love for her in return. It would have been nice to see what would have happened between them under better circumstances.

"I have to admit you had me going there for second." The boy chuckled as well as Zoe, but it was more of an apprehensive laughter, "So you think you could come by my place sometime and finished were we left off?"

The girl was shocked to hear his request. "W-what Are you saying?"

"I'm talking about finishing the lab homework." Takuya deadpanned. He knew her mind jumped to conclusions.

"Oh…" she sighed, "Yeah."

"And do you mind coming in a bikini this time, that way it can keep me excited the whole time."

She slapped him across the arm, "Of course not! That was a onetime thing, _OK_?

"I was just _kidding_. Gosh." The boy rubbed his arm.

A minute pasted between the two as they stood in silence, watching the sunset behind the horizon.

"But there is something I have to tell you…" Takuya faced the girl one more time and held her by her shoulders. His firm grip and steady eye contact captured her attention.

"There's something I've been meaning to tell you for a while, and the thing is I…."

Zoe's eyes widen with amazement due to the suspense. He was most likely going to confess his love here and now. _Where's a sound recorder when you need it_, the girl thought.

Takuya struggled with the words. "Zoe I…"

"Takuya!"

Takuya faced the door as Kouji and Kouichi came, racing up the stairs. They were worn out from running.

"There you are Takuya!" Kouji called out.

"Ms. Avery sent us after you. Apparently you forgot that you had detention with her after school!"

(DUNH! DUNH! DUNH!)

Takuya shot his eyes out nearly twice their size. "Dammit! I forgot."

"You should go right away before she gets angry or something."

He boy sighed as he hung his head down. He forgot all about his appointment with the teacher due to all the fiasco business lately.

"Fine, I'll be right there." The boy moaned as he followed the two twins inside the building. He left Zoe up on the roof, feeling dumfounded and disgruntled as ever. Now she will never what Takuya had to get off his chest. She could only imagine.

-xxx-

(Meanwhile, back in Takuya's room…)

JP stood near Takuya's bed after he took a long cold shower. He slung his lower body in a towel as his foot bumped into a brown satchel.

"What is this?" he asked. He noticed the name "Izumi Orimoto" engraved on bag.

"Hehehe" the boy snickered as he slowly opened the bag and rummaged hoping to find something private and valuable like a diary. Instead, his hand grabbed a hold of a device; a sound recorder.

"What the heck is this?" he said as he pushed the play button.

Immediately, the sound of Takuya and Zoe's voice played on the device. It was replaying the conversation they were having when Zoe tried to seduce Takuya.

JP's eyes enlarged with horror. He did his best not to imagine nor depict the details of the possible situation that took place on the bed as he glanced over at the ruffled sheets.

"NOOOOOOO! DAMN YOU, TAKUYAAAAA!"

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**A/N:** Aaaaaahahhaha. I finally finished it. I haven't had sleep in three days I tell you. Now I'm starting to lose my mind *collapses*. I think I had a lot of fun with this chapter, especially the bits with Takuya and Zoe.

Well anyways, like always, thank you for reading guys… I have to go to bed now.


	7. Day 5

**A/N:** Hiya there. I've updated once again, just in case you thought I forgot all about this story *cricket chirps*. If you want to know what I've been up to I'll explain at the end...Now enjoy the show. I implore you.

* * *

><p><strong>Just A Day In The Life… <strong>

**Day 5**

**(Hanging out. Down the Street)**

After a few weeks of going to school, the frontier gang realized they could use a break. Not just any break. Perhaps a vacation, but unfortunately, the nearest vacation break they would be getting was in winter.

Back at the boys' dormitory, Takuya, Kouji, Kouichi, and JP were waking up to another morning. And not just any morning. It was the morning that the gang they decided to hangout and take a look around the city. Ever since they transferred to the City of Legacy, they never took the time to familiarize themselves with the region.

"Hurry up Takuya! You're hogging up all the warm water, dammit!" JP pounded his fist on the bathroom door. He was in his white muscle shirt and green plaid pajama pants.

"Yeah-yeah. Don't worry. I'll be out in a minute."

"That's what you said twenty minutes ago! TWENTY I SAY!"

Kouichi and Kouji were also getting ready for the day. Kouichi was meditation while Kouji polished the sheath of his family treasured katana sword.

"Don't you guys care whether or not we get any time to take a shower?" JP pointed his aggression at the twins.

"Actually, no." Kouichi replied as he opened his eyes from his relaxation.

"We already took a shower earlier in the morning when you guys were asleep." Kouji admitted, still polishing the lethal weapon.

JP's facial expression went numb for a second. He then moaned as he continued pounding on the restroom door.

"Alright. Alright! I'm done!" Takuya said as he finished drying his wet brown hair.

"It's about time!" JP groaned as he rushed into the bathroom. His foot caught the slippery floor causing him to slip and fall on his back. Tears welled up in JP's eyes as a cough like moan escaped his mouth. "I swear Takuya if I die before the end of today… I'll kill you!"

-xxx-

Meanwhile, at the girls' dormitory, Zoe and her roommates just woke up from their sleep. Zoe remembered the plans that she and the rest of the guys made as she got ready for the outing.

"So where are you're going, that you didn't invite us too?" Victoria asked.

"Sorry girls, but the guys and I planned this a while back. They thought we could hang out over the weekend since we don't talk to each other as much since we transferred." Zoe explained herself to the rest of the girls.

"Well that's nice." Vanessa said as she slowly woke up from her bed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Oh really. You shure you wont be doing anything else?" Naomi replied with an inquisitive tone as she plopped her back on her bed.

"W-what on earth do you mean?" Zoe replied. Her face froze with anxiety.

"Oh you know what I mean."

"Oh come on Naomi. Its nothing like that."

"Sure sure I get it. I was just joking with you. You probably think were to boring to hang out with anyways!"

"Oh stop it. That's not true!" Zoe replied, jokingly. She walked towards the mirror and brushed her hair and subtly applied chap stick.

-xxx-

"Halllrighiiiit!" Takuya grinned as he pumped his fist and performed a pelvic thrust. "Today is gonna be awesome!"

"What's with all the over the top enthusiasm?" Kouji asked.

"Because I have big plans to tear this city up from top to bottom."

"Dude, it's only an outing. You act as if we're going on an adventure to the far seas of Tortuga!" Kouji said with his arms folded.

"Yeah, but this is awesome. We don't get to do this often."

Suddenly JP busted out with a thought provoking sigh. "Let's get going already. I can't wait to see Zoe."

The boys walked out of the dorm room in their outing attire like a group of badasses walking in slow motion.

"Where should we go first?" Takuya asked the guys. Takuya had on a backwards maroon cap complimented by a black shirt with a maroon vest on top of it as well. He wore Khakis along with black shoes with white soles.

"How 'bout your mothers house!" Kouji quipped. The guys laughed at Kouji's remark. Kouji wore a sky blue shirt and a navy collard jacket with black slacks and black shoes.

"Haha, I haven't heard that one in ages!" JP added, snorting like a pig. His attire was pretty simple consisting of a green shirt and blue jeans and brown boots.

"Now now guys. Let's be nice to one another." Kouichi, being the pacifier he was, diffused the situation. He wore a tight purple sweater with a black clingy t shirt on top, khaki pants, and black and white sole sneakers to accompany his attire.

In a few minutes they made it downstairs and met Tommy along the way. He had on a green and white striped shirt, khaki pants, and white sneakers with green soles. He never left his room without his trademark orange mushroom hat.

"Ah sweet. Tommy's here." Takuya said.

"Hey guys. How's it going?" Tommy greeted his older friends. He was a rare sight to see around the rest of the gang due his new location on the campus. Being a junior high student he had to be housed with the under classmen in a separate dorm all together.

Once they got acquainted, they all replied back with their warm greetings. After, they all rushed out the door for the last member of the frontier group, Zoe.

-xxx-

"Buy guys. I'm leaving!" Zoe called out to her roommates as she departed out of her dorm room "224". She wore a cute light-pink tunic with black leggings accentuating her figure, along with white flats on her feet. To top it off she had her white purse clutched underneath her arm and sunglasses upon her radiant face, etched with white frames. She was well dressed over the top and she was ready for anything.

As she stepped on to the front dormitory campus she saw a group of guys hanging around a picnic table meant, for anyone who would like to eat outside on a beautiful day. Sure enough the group of guys was her male friends, waiting for her to make an appearance.

The first one to notice her was none other than JP. His eyes flew from their sockets and his jaw dropped ten feet.

"Wow,Zoe," Kouichi remarked, "You look real nice today."

"Yeah. If I didn't know better I'd say you were going out on a date with one of us." Takuya said, adding to Kouichi's compliment.

"Oh stop it you guys." Zoe blushed as she glanced towards her feet as if that would direct attention away from her face. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear in the process, unconscious of her actions.

"So who's the lucky guy?" Takuya quipped, making the girl feel even more uncomfortable.

"Stooop it guys. I just wanted to look nice that's all."

"We know. We're just teasing you." Kouichi said.

Meanwhile, JP was having uncontrollable thoughts within himself. "OH MY GOSH! ZOE!" JP jumped from his seat to confront the blond. Her face slightly froze with anxiety.

"I wish I had dress up a little better just for you, heh heh…" JP nervously brushed the back of his neck, showing how ashamed he was of his simple attire in comparison to Zoe's.

"Oh?" Zoe replied, unsure of how to respond.

An awkward pause crept into the atmosphere along with a slight breeze.

"Aaaand leave it to JP to make things awkward. Alright let's go!" Takuya broke the awkward tension as he looked at his imaginary watch on his wrist. He sprung to his feet and adjusted his outfit.

"So where to?" Kouji asked the leader of the group.

"Uuuuh actually I don't know…. I was thinking that maybe you guys had any ideas."

"We could start at the train station. That's where everything begins." Tommy suggested with his eyes closed and his index finger raised in the air like a mathematician coming up with a new theory.

-xxx-

"Next stop, 'Downtown'! " A lethargic voice blared over the train station's intercom. The train station was just like the one from home in Shibuya. The place was boasting with lively people caring on about their business, awaiting their next destination.

The frontier gang stood in front of the railways waiting for the next train to come by.

"This brings back old memories." JP said.

"Yeah like that one time we all got separated at the train station." Tommy reminded.

"Ah, don't remind me. That was as disaster." Kouji replied as she shook his head of the memory. (_Dear reader: if you're lost at this comment you should check out my other work: To Grandma's House We Go. That'll explain everything.)_

"A disaster indeed." said Kouichi.

As the guys recalled horrendous memories from their past, Zoe caught a glimpse of a sign leading to the underground subway.

"Hey look guys, there's a subway also. Just like the one at home."

"Yeah, but I doubt it could ever take us to the digital world." Kouji replied to Zoe's observation.

The gang suddenly remembered there long missed adventures in the digital world when they were younger. What a joy it was back then.

"Man, its been ages since then. I've pretty much forgotten how that place looked like." JP muttered out loud.

"Yeah." the others said in unison.

Meanwhile, the train came sputtering by with a loud clank against the rails of the road. With its loud hydraulic systems, it came to a soundly stop as one could hear the steam popping from the train.

The metal mechanical doors opened and a flurry passengers left the train while other got on.

"Come on guys." Takuya called out to his friends as he jogged over to one of the trains entrance. He glanced back and noticed Zoe was standing behind him. He gracefully stepped to the side and pointed his hands towards the entrance door like a servant would to his gracious master. "Ladies first."

"Why thank you." Zoe replied as she stepped on board.

After the young lady got on board, Takuya walked right after her, suddenly showing his selfish side. Since the boy skipped in front of Kouji, Kouji shoved him to show his disproval. Of course this was all in fun.

-xxx-

On the train ride towards down town city, the group of young adults stared out the window for the majority of the time, as if they had never seen a city landscape before. The train briskly pasted by a plethora of billboards, grabbing the attention of those that catch a glimpse.

The train finally came to a halt as it stopped in front of Downtown. The gang got off and the journey was about to begin.

All of them walked together in a cluster down the busy sidewalk. They passed by many extravagant buildings.

Tommy noticed a sign outside of a theater titled "It Happened in the Room"! On the sign had a cliché picture of a ghoulish gothic design with an eye lurking from a slit opened door. It was in the dark by the way.

"That looks awesome. I want to see that." Tommy said with excitement.

Takuya and the others glanced at what he was referring to and back at him with disbelief.

"Aren't you a little too young to watch something like that?"

"Nah uh? I watched horror movies all the time with my bigger brother back at home. I can stand the horror. I'm a big boy now."

"I don't know, Tommy…" Takuya trailed off in his sentenced.

"Whats the matter Takuya? You scared?" Kouji quipped, with a snarky smile on the corner of his face.

"Wha-? No! I'm just saying… it looks a little gory for someone as young as Tommy to be watching."

"Oh just admit it. Takuya you scared of a scary movie."

"Wouldn't that be the point?" Takuya shot back, sarcastically.

"Bwaaaaaak bwak bwak bwak bwak bwak bbbbbwak!" JP flung his arms like a chicken, signifying how he felt Takuya was acting.

"Quit that!" Takuya lashed out. He suddenly realized he was defending himself in front of his friends.

"Takuya, it's ok to admit if you get scared easily." Zoe comforted Takuya's shoulder like nurturing mother would to her child.

"That's IT!" Takuya marched off in the direction of the theater's doorway. Behind him, he could hear the laughter of his friends. It was easy to get him to do anything as long as they teased him about it long enough.

-xxx-

(Meanwhile in the theater…)

Sure enough the guys sat down in the same row with their popcorn and drinks, watching the movie, "It Happened in the Room".

JP's loud slurping of his coke, echoed in the half empty theater. Someone in the crowd shunned him.

The twins Kouji and Kouichi watched half interested in the film. To them it wasn't interesting enough.

"You know. Scary movies these days seem to be more about gore and blood instead of actual… you know scaring the pants off the audience."

Meanwhile, Tommy was engrossed with the screen. The display of horror flashing before his eyes did not seem to faze him the slightest.

"How can you sit there and watch this without blinking?" JP asked the little one.

Tommy ignored him and took a handful of popcorn and wolfed it down with a crunching sound.

Takuya on the other hand was squirmy on the inside. He could not put a finger on as to why he was unsettled by the display of grotesque events on the screen while his friends watched without much as a flinch.

As he cringed at every suspenseful scene, Zoe would take some popcorn out of his bucket.

"Hey, I thought you said you didn't want any popcorn." Takuya hissed.

"Yeah…" Zoe whispered back as she crunched on the buttery kernel of deliciousness.

"Then why are you taking some from mine?"

"Because… I still want some." Zoe continued eyeing the screen dodging occasionally due to how captivated she was.

"Then you should have got your own?" Takuya hissed this time with wild eyes.

Suddenly, the entire theater screamed with horror (except Kouji and Kouichi). Takuya screamed the loudest and the longest. It was as if he was possessed by a little school girl that just seen a murder take place. Realizing how embarrassing his predicament was he quickly clamped his hand around his mouth hoping that would trap any escaping noise that had already been heard by his peers.

He looked to his left and right and noticed the peculiar looks. He was not going to escape the harassment after the movie.

-xxx-

After the movie the clique was once again on the sidewalks, roaming the streets to see what they could attend next.

Above them, a flock of birds squawked and screeched above them as they passed by.

"Those birds are annoying…" Kouichi said as he looked above at the sky. He knew better than to look up at a flock of birds for one does not know when a bird may drop its droppings on innocent bystanders below.

"Yeah, if they were any louder they might sound like Takuya screaming like a little girl."

The group instantly burst out laughing at Takuya's expense.

"Dammit, I knew you guys would not let that one go."

"I sorry, Takuya. Did you say something. Maybe if you screamed like a girl I could here you." JP joked, while the other snorted at his remark.

Takuya snarled under his breath. " You guys are just jealous."

"Jealous? Jealous of what?" Kouji wondered.

Takuya took a second to respond. "I don't know…. But you guys just are."

The guys continued laughing, uninterrupted by Takuya's irrational reasoning.

"OK you guys. Leave him alone," Zoe butted in Takuya's behalf. Takuya was relieved by her good deed. It was so comforting to his self-worth.

"I mean so what if he sounds like me when he's screaming." Zoe went on, only to inadvertently ridicule the goggle head. The others went another round of laughter. Her comment tickled them another shade of red.

Meanwhile, Takuya marched off without them. He was above there nonsense.

"Hey, Takuya come back. We were only kidding!"

"Yeah we promise we won't make fun of you anymore."

Takuya knew they were only stalling for the moment he least expected the insults, but he forgave them just for the moment with a bitter sigh.

-xxx-

"Ah, so what do we do now?" Kouichi wondered. The gang had been walking the streets of downtown for an hour admiring the surroundings and window shopping.

"Yeah, we've been roaming the streets for some time now." Takuya added.

Tommy and JP glanced over at an arcade arena across the street. The flashy neon lights caught there attention, like casino lights in a Las Vegas setting. It was massive for an arcade arena.

"How bout over there?" JP and Tommy pointed at the building.

"Hey, that place looks cool. Let's check it out." Takuya said as he adjusted his goggles on his forehead (_they just magically appeared I guess)._

Zoe disapproved with a sigh, sucking her teeth. She finally took the shades off her eyes and placed them in her cleavage. "I don't want to go in there?"

"Why not it will be fun?" Takuya insisted, but Zoe placed her hands on her hips, defiantly.

"For you guys it will, but I'm going to be bored."

"What? That's crazy talk. How could you be bored in a place like that?"

"Yeah?" Kouichi chimed in.

Zoe pouted as she stared at the short hair twin.

Takuya realized he had to make her happy somehow. "Fine, how 'bout we check this place out and afterwards we go to a place you'll like? Eh?"

Zoe sighed again, but this time it was with a passive attitude. "Fine. I guess. But remember you said that OK?"

"Of course..." Takuya knew he would regret that promise.

-xxx-

Inside the arcade center, there were many adolescents duking it out on the fighting and racing arcade machines.

"This place is paradise!" Tommy shouted as he ran off to the nearest available fighting arcade system.

"You said it!" JP yelled as he followed Tommy to the same gaming station so they could duke it out.

"Look at those two." Kouji said under his breath but to the point the other could hear it, "Especially JP. He's too grown to be playing such childish games."

"Oh yeah?" Kouichi interrupted "Well I challenge _you _to a game!" He glanced around the area and spotted two virtual racing seats behind him. "Over there we shall race to the finish."

"What? That's crazy. I don't do racing games."  
>"So do you decline my challenge? Ha! How cowardly of you." Kouichi tossed is bangs to the side in an arrogant fashion as if he was disappointed his brothers choice of actions.<p>

Meanwhile, Zoe and Takuya watched the twins bicker with disbelief and amusement.

"Fine! I accept, but you going to wish you never challenged me in first place." Kouji cracked his knuckles and tugged his coat. He was now pumped up as both the twins marched off to the racing simulator.

This now left Takuya and Zoe alone together. They both avoided eye contact at first before they finally looked at each other. It seemed that they still remembered the events that happened between them not too long ago which made the moment awkward.

"So… what do you want to do?" Takuya asked Zoe, with an unsure tone. She was passively looking the other way when she answered, "Nothing."

"Ah, come on there's got to be something you want to do?"

She faced the goggle head with a stern look. "I want to get out of here. That's what I want to do."

They both chuckled at the remark, due to how witty it was. It became silent between them once again for another minute.

Takuya realized he had to do something quick, or the remainder of the time spent would be them just standing next to each other doing nothing.

The boy spotted an air hockey station they could play till it was time to go.

"Hey, how about we play some air hockey?"

"I don't-" before the girl could decline, she felt a tug on her arm as Takuya pulled her along.

"Come on. It will be fun."

The girl slightly blushed at the suddenness of his action. "O-ok?"

At the station the boy held the puck in front of him displaying it to Zoe. " You know how to play right?"

"Of course I do…" the girl rolled up her sleeves and tied her hair back in a ponytail. For a brief second, Takuya did not know what got a hold of him. Even though he saw Zoe as an attractive girl, there just something about her putting her hair in a ponytail that made his heart skip a beat.

"Come on I'm ready!" the girl said, waiting for Takuya to serve the puck.

He snapped out of his daze and placed the puck on the slick surface of the hockey arena. "Alright. Get ready. Don't think I'll go easy on you because you're a girl."

"Oh _please_ don't…" Zoe said sarcastically.

Takuya smirked back and shot the puck violently. It skid towards Zoe's goal with easy and went through. The boy smirked and nodded his head with affirmation. Zoe however was not so pleased. She took the puck and shot it herself, but Takuya was too quick and snapped it back at her. Before she realized it, it went into her goal once again.

"Aw yeah!" Takuya clenched his fist. Zoe pouted her lips. She disapproved.

"Two and 'O'." Takuya said, emphasizing the fact he was winning."

"OK. Come back down to earth. You haven't won yet. It's the first to seven." Zoe informed the boy as she removed the bangs from her eyes. Perhaps that was what was distracting her. She grabbed the puck once again and served it with passive aggression. Takuya read her move like an open strategy book and knocked it back at an angle into her goal. He made it look so easy.

"I can do this all day ya know?" Takuya was arrogant with his words as he popped a toothy grin.

"Shut up." Zoe replied. She had enough of his nonsense. In all reality, she did not care anything about the game, but the fact Takuya was gloating like a loud sports fanatic made her want to put him in his place. This game just got serious.

-xxx-

The light and friendly nature of the match quickly, vanished as it grew more competitive with each win from Takuya. It was now 6-0. Takuya was winning by a landslide, and Zoe had nothing on her end to show for it.

"You know Zoe. We could call it a match. I don't want to see you like this. After all, you didn't want to play." As concerning as that sounded from Takuya, Zoe knew he was only adding salt to a gaping wound.

"Yeah right. I want to play this to the end." She hunkered down and placed the puck on the hockey surface.

Takuya smirked and got ready to defend. "Alright. Suit yourself."

With all of Zoe's energy she focused on her next and last stand against Takuya's wailing and overwhelming offense. She swung the puck with all her might as she yelled a battle cry like a mighty warrior.

It obliterated Takuya's defenses as it landed in his goal. For a minute the boy was speechless. "Eh? Not bad?"

"Hmph." Zoe sounded with triumph. She finally made a goal and that was not her only one soon to come.

She made two more shots before Takuya began to worry. "OK. OK. You just got lucky that's all."

"Oh really?" Zoe replied as she tossed her blond hair to the side like a model with exaggeration. Now Zoe was the one becoming overconfident.

The match was a gruesome and an intensive one as Zoe continued scoring on Takuya to the point they were tied up. Takuya was astounded by the comeback and a crowd was starting to gather around them. A bunch of kids were intrigued by the match up and wanted to see who would win.

Takuya's eyes darted around. The pressure increased with each eye set on him knowing if he screwed this up he would never live it down for the rest of his days.

He placed the puck on the table ready to serve. As he looked over at Zoe, his mind started playing tricks on him. Suddenly a mysterious wind blew around Zoe, causing her hair to flutter around like supermodel. Takuya shook his head vehemently, shaking the thought out of his head. He glanced at Zoe again and this time she seemed to be striking a pose with one arm hugging herself and the other seductively pointing her finger in her mouth. She was attractive more than EVER before.

"Are you going to serve or not?" Zoe asked.

Takuya snapped out of his trance only to see an irritated Zoe waiting for him.

"Oh…" the boy regained his composure and served the puck. It flew over to Zoe's side but she knocked it back in Takuya's court. This went on and on for an intense minute until one of them would have to win. Takuya decided to use his "Forbidden Move Technique". As the puck sailed towards him, he took a step back and spun around before he served the next puck with a tremendous velocity. There was no way Zoe would guard this. But unfortunately, she surely did by accident and yet she did not know. The crowd around them "Ohed" in unison at such an occurrence. Zoe seeing her chance knocked it back towards Takuya from an angle. Takuya was still recovering from his spin attack and misread the move as the puck sank into his goal. The spectators around them uproared with cheers and jeers. Takuya had been beaten by the now exuberant Zoe.

-xxx-

"So how does it feel to lose… to _moi_, a girl?" Zoe rubbed it in Takuya face outside the arcade.

"I don't want to talk about. Besides… I let you win."

"Sure… right." Zoe mocked as she placed her shades back on. She patted the boy on the back for good effort.

The rest of the gang was around the two as they heard this news.

"Ahahahahah!" JP outburst in laughter.

"Hoyhoyhoyhoyoooo!" Tommy giggled.

"It just isn't your day is it, Takuya." Kouji said, with a condescending attitude.

After they ridiculed Takuya some more, they realized they had one more place to go. Zoe reminded the boys of her deal with Takuya and decided now was the time to cash in.

"Since we went to a place you guys like, now it's time to go to a place I would enjoy."

_"Please don't let it be the mall" _all the guys thought in their head.

_"I hope it's the cheese cake factory," _JP thought in his head, with a grin on his face. How naïve.

-xxx-

All the guys were at the downtown mall behind Zoe as she shouted at the top of her lungs, "The mall!"

"Dammit Takuya. See what you did?" Kouji hissed in earshot of Takuya. The goggle boy did not have a response.

"Don't worry you guys. We're only going to look at some stuff." Zoe smiled as she skipped on the ceramic tiles of the extravagant mall.

"You say that now, but just you wait…" Takuya muttered.

-xxx-

After checking out every outlet in the mall, the gang came across one clothing shop, Forever 22. Zoe liked an outfit in the window and figured she'd go inside to check it out.

"Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing?" Takuya exclaimed. The rest of the guys agreed with his feelings.

"I'm going inside. I saw something I like."

"Ah man. You here that guys. She saw something she likes. Brace yourself she's bringing the whole store with her." Kouji quipped.

"YOU guys are unbelievable." Zoe replied as she continued inside.

"Ah come on you guys. It's not that big a deal, sheesh. Zoe, wait for me." JP jogged right behind the girl. The rest of them followed, reluctantly.

Tommy looked around him and saw nothing but women's clothing.

"Nothing-but-girls-clothing-everywhere." Tommy was hyperventilating, "This is no man's land. I must get air!" Tommy leaped out of the store.

"What's his problem?" everyone wondered.

-xxx-

After waiting for Zoe to try on different outfits, the fellows were aching for something else to do other than sit around. Zoe finished paying for her new clothes and handed them to JP to carry. He of course did not contest with her decision.

The gang scrambled their way outside of the mall, into the city streets. It was the evening as the golden sun set in the distance. It was time to head back to their dorms which their bodies ached so much for. They got on the next train back home, just moments away from ending the day.

-xxx-

"Well that was fun for the most part," said Kouichi. It was the most he said all day.

"It sure was." Tommy added.

"Easy for you guys to say. I'm the one holding all this stuff." JP complained as held layers of bags in each hand. Zoe shot him a quick stern look.

"Ah, but it's not like I don't mind heh-heh." He quickly rephrased his statement so that he did not upset Zoe.

"We should hang out more often." Takuya said as he straightened his cap and goggles.

"Yeah, I highly doubt we may ever get a chance like this again." Kouji replied to Takuya's statement.

At a slow pace they came by the school's park up ahead. It looked different in the evening sunlight, than it did during the day. It was pleasant just as well as welcoming.

The gang glanced at each other before they made their way over to the park, as if they needed reassurance from one another. They figured they might as well have fun on the equipment. It's not like they have much fun every day.

(**BGM: **Change of Seasons, by Sweet Thing)

Kouichi and Zoe got on the swings while Takuya and Kouji stood and watched. JP sat on the bench while Tommy slid down the slide. It was not long before Takuya saw an opportunity to mess with Zoe for winning their air hockey game earlier. He came up from behind her and grabbed the swing and pushed it further than she intended. It was unexpected as she shrieked, but Takuya continued pulling and pushing Zoe's swing.

"S-stop it Takuya!" the girl pleaded.

"Hey, don't make me come over there and whoop yo ass!" JP threatened Takuya.

The goggle boy eventually stopped, but not because of JP's empty threat. As Zoe came to a stop she slapped Takuya across the arm.

"Ouch." The boy exclaimed. He rubbed his arm, even though it did not heart.

"Oh stop. You know that didn't heart."

Meanwhile, Kouji watched the two bicker. "Do you guys need a room?"

With flustered faces they insisted otherwise.

The rest of the evening they hung out at the park, enjoying each other's presence with laughters and memories. This was going to be one of the only times they could do this since their high school life would dominate their everyday life. But it was in these moments they could still cling onto adolescence as adulthood crept around the corner.

(**Ending Song:** Change of Seasons, by Sweet Thing)

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Long time no read my fellow fanfic readers. It's been like 3 months since I last updated, but I can explain. You see I've been busy with either school, work, or school (did I mention eating and sleeping also?) There just isn't enough time in a day, I say. Not enough. Not only that but if you haven't noticed I've also started a Digimon Frontier abridged series (Info on my author page). Of course it's no masterpiece (yet) but I'm working on it, which is why I may not update this story as soon as possible (as if I was a fast updater). Anywho, I encourage you to check it out and… stuff.

See you next time on…whatever I end up updating…

You still reading this?

.

.

.

Why?


	8. Day 6-1

**A/N:** As you can see and read, I took a random/interesting idea and ran with it. I ran all the way home…

* * *

><p><strong>Just A Day In The Life… <strong>

**Day 6 (Pt. 1)**

**(The Missing Briefcase)**

It was a cold rainy morning, outside the campus of Western Legacy Academy. It poured like a Niagara rainfall since the night before, and for the most part, it did not show any signs of letting up. Outside the male's dormitory, a luxury car pulled up towards the gate as the driver screeched to a halt at a bus stop. The driver, who was dressed down for the part, stepped out the car with a black umbrella hovered above him. He stepped to the far end of the car to let his passenger out. Out of the jet black vehicle stepped a young man with fair skin. His shimmery silver was his prominent feature due to the fact he was too young for gray hair. His pristine blue eyes glared at the dormitory behind the gate as disgust sank in.

"Hmph, quite dreadful, actually. I guess this will do." The boy said in an English accent.

"Here, mastah. Take this umbrella while I grab your bags." The driver said as he proceeded to grab the young man's bags. He then escorted him towards the dorm room building.

-xxx-

"You cheated!" JP yelled as Kouichi whooped in a first person shooter game.

"How could I have cheated?"

"I don't know but… you just did."

"Will you keep it down? I'm trying to finish my Literature homework." Kouji yelled.

"I told you, Kouji. You should have done it as soon as she gave the assignment out," Kouichi, reprimanding his brother

"Don't lecture me. I was busy."

Meanwhile, Takuya came out of the bathroom, ready for school, but class would not start in another 30 minutes.

"Well this is a shock. Since when do you wake up early?" Kouichi wondered.

"I don't know. I guess the rain soothed me to sleep last night. It always does." Takuya walked over to the cabinet to pull out his favorite morning cereal, Krazy Krunches, Which were wafers glazed in 100 grams of suger…per a bite. He poured himself a bowl and walked over to the fridge to pull the carton of milk.

"How 'bout best two out of three?" JP said, hoping that Kouichi would take the bait for another round before it was time to go to school.

Takuya opened the carton of milk and attempted to poor its contents into the bowl, but nothing came out but a drop.

"WHAAAAA?!"

All the guys snapped their attention at Takuya who was acting like a total drama queen.

"What's the deal man?" JP asked.

"Theres… no more… milk!"

The guys in the entire room gasped. All hell was about to break loose.

"I need milk in order to enjoy this cereal!" Takuya lashed out. As soon as he said that the guys went back to what they were doing as if he did not say anything of urgency.

"Fine…I'll go get some milk from the school cafeteria." Takuya pouted as he walked over to door and placed his shoes on. "I'll be right back!" the young man said as he sprinted out the door like a bullet. "No thanks to you guys!"

Takuya forgot about the rain as he jogged outside. "Crap! I should have brought an umbrella."

As he jogged he reminisces on how his morning was going so far.

"Those lousy friends of mine can't even tell when we're out of stuff like milk. Now they got me out here running in the rain like a crazy idiot. Man, I need that milk…"

As he passed through the girl's dormitory he noticed something that caught his attention. It was a silver briefcase lying out in a bush with no one attended.

Takuya's curiosity got the better of him as he slowed down to a halt. He walked over to the briefcase with a pensive attitude. He surveyed his surroundings to make sure no one was watching, and that no traps would capture him in his devious act. As soon as everything checked out, Takuya snatched the briefcase from its lonely spot. He tested its weight by weighing it up and down in his hand like a balance. It was substantially heavy. He cracked it open a small amount, just in case there was a detonating bomb. Instead, it was something else that blew his mind. He hastily rushed back towards the dorm rooms. Wait till the other guys find out what he discovered.

(Meanwhile at the guys dorm…)

"OK that was the best 3 out of 5. I'm done. I need to get ready for school."

"I swear, Kouichi, your cheating. You know some secret to this game that I don't."

"Will you guys shut up? I need to concentrate. I only have ten minutes to finish this homework …"

Both JP and Kouichi glared at Kouji.

"Dude, just copy of Kouichi."

"How dare you insult my integrity?" Kouji lashed out.

"Wha…?"

"I would never settle to the means of cheating in order pass any class. It completely goes against my code of ethics."

"You have a code of ethics?"

Suddenly the door flew open, banging against the wall. Takuya stood in the doorway panting as heavy as a jogger who ran a hundred mile race.

"Takuya? What's up with you?"

Still breathless, Takuya pulled the briefcase from behind his back. "Look what I found!"

"A briefcase?"

"Yes, and not just any briefcase." He slammed the thing on the counter and flipped the case open. A golden light blazed out of the briefcase accompanied by a heavenly symphony. Inside was a plethora of money bundled together by the hundreds.

"Dude? Where'd you find this?" JP asked.

"Outside in a nearby bush."

JP and the other two could not believe that answer. "That's crazy. How much is in there?"

"A LOT! A WHOLE-FREAKIN-LOT!"

"Do you have any idea whose it is?"

"Nope… that's why we're going to keep it."

"Sweet mama jamba!" JP walked over to the case of money to get his hands on it, but Takuya swatted his hand away.

"Hey…That's my money. Hands off."

"Your money? Don't you think you should at least share it?"

"Hell no! I found it. I keep ti!"

Kouji silenced the two. "You idiots. Place money before men and they show their true selfish nature."

Takuya and JP faced the wise Kouji Minamotto. There beady eyes blinked at Kouji's remark.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't need to repeat myself. All I'm saying is we should share this thing evenly, but before that we should at least _attempt_ to find its rightful owner before claiming it."

"Yes, Kouji's right. Rule of thumb is that you wait three daysfor the rightful owner to return a lost item is rightfully yours." Kouichi informed the lot.

"Says who?"

"It's in the finder's keeper's handbook on page 67 section C.2." Kouichi pulled out a handbook from thin air, behind his back.

"I don't even want to know where you got that book from just now." JP said, baffled by Kouichi and his mysterious handbook.

"Alright, fine we'll split it even." Takuya said. He succumbed to the peer pressure.

"Yes we will, and in the meantime it should be hidden in a place only we should know until it's rightfully ours." Kouji suggested, stepping away from the group towards the window. He noticed the rain stopped but was still gloomy outside.

"What about Zoe and Tommy? Are we going to tell them?" Takuya asked.

"It's better if few people know about this until the dust has settled. Now let's go to class before were late."

The guys hid the briefcase in one of the cabinets and walked out of the room. It was only a matter of time before the money would belong to them.

-xxx-

(Meanwhile in Homeroom Class)

Takuya's stomach grumbled loudly like a gargling lava pit. During the morning's fiasco, he forgot about the milk and his cereal. He would have to go half of the day without food.

"Man I knew I was forgetting something." Takuya mumbled as he tightly clenched his stomach.

Meanwhile, Ms. Avery walked through the classroom door as the students began to settle down.

"Alright class. I hope you had a good and productive weekend."

"Yes!"

"No!"

"My weekend sucked!"

All the students went on about how their weekend was either great or horrible.

"That's good to hear. Now will you all please hand in your assignments from last week?"

Just about every student groaned as they pulled out the homework sheets from the bag.

Takuya dug through his bag for his assignment. His bag was disorganized and hard to locate anything of importance. Once he finally located the packet of paper, Kouichi, whom was sitting behind him, lurched over to ask him about the briefcase.

"So do you think we should tell the school principle about the briefcase? Or maybe Mr. Hitoyoshi could be of assistance?"

"Sssh! Now's not the time to discuss that. People could here you."

"Whats this I hear, about a briefcase?" Zoe asked. She was sitting diagonally behind Takuya and overheard the boy talking to Kouichi.

"O-oh… nothing… nothing at all. It's not like there was any money-" Takuya was cut off by the teacher who was now starring at the boy.

"Takuya? Is there something you want to discuss with the class?"

"NO MS. AVERY! NOTHING AT ALL!"

She had to admit. Takuya was acting peculiar.

"Good! Alright class now that you've handed your assignments in, please turn your books to page 123…"

As she was instructing the class a loud knock on the door echoed.

"Who is it?" asked Ms. Avery.

In stepped a young man dress in a white gakuran trimmed with light blue edgings. His shimmery silver hair was in the shape of an anime mullet; short and well groomed in the front and pointy in the back. His piercing blue eyes scanned the classroom before he entered.

"Hello! My name is Derrick Florence Dartmouth, but please call me Florence. I believe I'm your new transfer student," Said the young man with an English accent.

The class erupted in excitement. He looked like he came from a prestigious family line.

Ms. Avery was baffled by the news. In fact, she complete forgot about it this morning since she was informed of it the day before

"That's right! They mentioned you were the new student. I completely forgot." Ms. Avery adjusted her outfit slightly, as if she were trying to make a good impression in front of the boy. "Well class, say hello to our new student."

"HIIIIIIIIII!" Everyone greeted.

"I swear we keep getting new students every other day!" one random student muttered.

"Now how 'bout you take a seat over there In front of Takuya for now."

There just so happened to be an empty seat in front of the goggle-less boy. Florence walked over to Takuya and stared at him. It was as if he was analyzing him for any flaws.

"High there! My name's Takuya." Takuya introduced himself, but the new student sneered with a soundly "hmph" before he took his seat.

_What's his problem? _Takuya thought.

-xxx-

Later on after class, the gang hung around Florence, trying to get to know him better.

"So how's it going?" Takuya asked, even though he knew he was getting bad vibes from the new kid.

The boy glanced at him then closed his eyes dismissively. He then lamented over his predicament.

"I swear if I did not know any better I'd say my father was trying to punish me of some sorts, by sending me to this lousy school. How wretched."

"Why would your father punish you?" Takuya asked.

"Because… I come from a long line of Dartmouths; well known for our royalty and excellent academics, yet here I am in the mist of buffoons."

"Hey, know need to call it like it is. I bet you'd fit right in, Derrick." Takuya was behaving a little too comforting and optimistic.

"How DARE you call me by my first name! Only my father calls me Derrick. You may refer to me as Florence," The boy closed his student bag and stood up from his seat, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be leaving now. Good day..."

With that he walked out the classroom door.

"Man, that guy has one _rich _personality, I must say." Takuya said with admiration. He seemed to have forgotten how rude the boy was behaving towards him.

"Yeah, right! Your just sucking up to him, so you can get close to his family and his wealth."

"Yeah, perhaps if he tries any hard he may fit in the family tree."

The guys chuckled.

"Yeah Takuya. Maybe if they give you some of his inheritance, you might share it with us." Zoe quipped.

Takuya glared back at the three friends of his. How dare they insult his integrity and good natured soul. "And by sharing, if you mean tossing it at you while you dance for me on a stripper pole, then yes! Yes I will _share_ the _hell_ out of it."

Takuya was entranced by the thought, while Zoe glared daggers at him. "You're such a slob Takuya."

(Yes, I stole a joke… sue me.)

-xxx-

Meanwhile at lunch, the gang sat at the same table as they usually do. Takuya was the hungriest since he missed out on breakfast. He wolfed down his meal as if it were going to escape his salivating lips.

"Geez, Takuya! You're eating more than JP." Kouichi remarked. He was on his third scoop of the green jello.

Other than his remark, the table was mostly quiet. No one had anything to say or speak of. It was then that Zoe remembered Takuya and Kouichi's conversation.

"So what were you guys talking about this morning? Something about a briefcase?"

"Disregard whatever you heard. I can assure you it was nothing but nonsense." Kouji intervened, trying his best to dissuade the curious Zoe.

"Yeah, but Takuya mentioned something about money before Ms. Avery interrupted him."

"MONEY?" Tommy's ears perked once those words escaped Zoe's mouth.

"Oh gosh now Tommy knows." Takuya exclaimed as he slapped his forehead.

"Knows what?" Zoe asked.

"Yeah, what do I know?" Tommy asked. He was clueless as ever.

Both the twins glared at Takuya's choice of words, causing suspicion from the others.

"You idiot! I swear you're horrible at keeping secrets." JP smacked Takuya across the back of the head.

"Hey, that's not true. I do a decent job of keeping my mouth shut, like that one time you ate Zoe's cake she baked for her mother…"

Zoe gasped. She had wondered who could have done such a thing all this time and know she finally knew. "How could you JP? That was for my mom?"

"Yeah, but it was an accident. I SWEAR!" JP defended himself before his eyes glared at Takuya. For a second he was possessed by rage and strangled Takuya by the neck. "I swear Takuya! You just can't keep your mouth SHUT!"

Kouji ignored the dispute between them and divulged the information he and the other three were trying to hide.

"Well I guess the cats out of the bag. Apparently, Takuya found a briefcase this morning, and we all decided we would keep it once it was ok to claim ownership. Afterwards we would eventually let you and Tommy in on the deal."

"Ah SWEET! I'm gonna be RICH!" Tommy exclaimed.

"Ssssh! You'll attract unwanted attention. We want the least amount of people to know about this as much as possible."

"Hey, guys?" Rosa, who had not been seen in some time, came across there table.

"Wow, Rosa? Haven't seen you in like two chapters now." Takuya said.

"Yeah, I've been around…" the girl replied.

There was an awkward pause.

"So I guess I'll be leaving now." The girl walked off, never to be heard from again till the next time she showed herself.

"So anyways… where's the briefcase.?" Zoe asked.

"It's back at our dorm room in a safe place where no one shall touch it till everything is cleared." Kouji informed.

"Well, shouldn't you guys at least tell someone in authority about this so that people would be aware that there's a missing briefcase full of money?" Tommy asked.

"That's the thing. If everyone knows about it, then everyone would claim it, and we would also be in jeopardy of getting hurt or robbed in the process by greedy bastards." JP replied, with his arms folded, and eyes closed.

"He's right. Plus giving it to the school principal or Mr. Hitoyoshi, doesn't seem right. For all we know we may never see the thing again…" It was Takuya's turn to shed some of his light on the situation.

All this discussion of money was getting them more paranoid than cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

"How bout we tell our headmaster, Sgt. Colonel? He's a trustworthy guy, being a veteran and all." Takuya had an idea.

"Perhaps. But until then we keep quiet about this. OK?" Kouji insisted that everyone swear an oath of silence.

Everyone shook their head as a response. They were on board with the plan.

"Well guys, I got to get going. Don't want t be late for my next class." JP got up from his chair to put his tray away. It was shocking because JP's tray of food was hardly touched.

"Yeah, and I need to go use the restroom." Kouichi added. He too got up to take his tray away.

"Well I don't know about you guys but I'm gonna go get some more food…" Takuya leaped to his feet and dashed off.

Now Tommy, Zoe, and Kouji were alone staring at one another, with anxious looks as to what was going on. The sudden disbanding got to Kouji and his instincts as he slowly descended under the table. Zoe and Tommy watched him, confused as ever.

-xxx-

Takuya was halfway up the stairs in the guy's dormitory as he headed towards his room. He grabbed the door knob and slowly turned while looking around him to see if anyone was watching.

As he continued inside, he tip toed his way over to the cabinet where the briefcase was. It was then he heard a loud noise from the cabinet. It took Takuya back by surprise. Then fear set in. He thought there may have been a robber trying to steal the case full of money.

Suddenly the window opened as a large leg crept inside. Takuya shrieked louder than the human ear could handle as he reached for a weapon. It was JP that was trying to get in from the outside.

"JP? What the hell are you doing?"

"Me?" JP dusted himself off and adjusted his burnt orange sweater vest. "What the hell are _you _doing here?"

"Oh I was just checking to see if I locked the door this morning…"

"Mmmhmmm…. Really?" JP nodded his head with skepticism in his eyes.

Instantaneously, the cabinet opened and out stepped Kouji himself.

JP and Takuya shrieked together. It was like seeing a ghost from the past show up to their birthday party.

"What the hell, Kouji?"

"Yeah, when did you get in there?" _How'd_ you get in there? Takuya emphasized the last question.

"Ssssh… I have my ways. Plus, I knew something was up when guys decided to leave us at the lunch table so early."

Kouichi was the last to show up when he opened the bathroom door. He was out of breath and clutching his chest. He looked at all three of the guys who were gawking back at him as if he had three arms and one eye.

"Man… how'd you guys get here so fast?"

"How'd you get inside the bathroom?"

"Oh, I climbed through the window in the bathroom…"

This was odd. Here they all stood in the same room with the same purpose of stealing the briefcase for their own selfish needs.

"So I guess we won't be touching this," Kouji tapped the silver briefcase in his hand as he held it up in front of him, "Just know that I have an eye on all of you and the other on this briefcase so no one get any funny ideas."

"Wait, won't that make you cross eyed?" Takuya wondered.

"Now dismiss this idea of trying to pull a fast one on each other. It won't work." Kouji replied, ignoring Takuya's dumb question.

The other three looked defeated, knowing their plans of sabotage failed, especially since Kouji found some secret way to teleport to places.

-xxx-

"Please?" Zoe begged the brunette.

"NO!" Takuya replied.

"Come on. Why not?" Zoe begged some more as she jiggled up and down.

"Because… we don't want too many people meddling, that's all." Takuya held his ground.

They where in the middle of Chemistry class and it was five to a group in a lab experiment. JP, Kouji and Kouichi were also there.

"OH so now I'm meddling?" Zoe cocked an attitude at the Takuya.

"I didn't mean it like that. It's just…"

"It's just that we can't trust people these days." Kouji said, arrogantly as he wrote some verbiage in his Chemistry notebook.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Zoe wondered, twirling a strand of hair in her finger.

Kouji looked up from his notes. His face was delirious due to the fact he looked weird with his goggles on. "It means we can't trust each other. Earlier after lunch I caught these three trying to get their hands on the briefcase."

Zoe gasped like a soap opera actress.

"Hey, don't give us that bull crap. You were there too…"

"In my defense, I was guarding the thing from you guys. I didn't want to see you guys fighting over such materialistic thing like money."

"Pssh whatever…" JP scoffed.

They continued with their lab as Kouichi pitched in an idea. "You know to make this go faster, we could ask around the campus to see if anyone is missing anything without telling them what it is."

"Not a bad idea," said Takuya as he placed his goggles on. This felt familiar.

It was after the last and final school bell the gang dispersed to see if anyone was in desperate search of a missing item.

-xxx-

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**A/N:** Continue to the next chapter… and beware what awaits you in despairrrrrrr…


	9. Day 6-2

**A/N:** Welcome to despair, but beware… honestly I didn't know what else to type. Heh.

**Just A Day In The Life… **

**Day 6 (Pt. 2)**

**(The Missing Briefcase)**

-xxx-

"Hey guys!" Zoe called out to her female roommates. They all were in the hallway with distasteful expressions, looking in the same direction at a young man,.

"What are you guys looking at?" Zoe wondered as she followed their eyes.

There was a young man causing commotion down the hall as female students wailed and screamed for the young man's attention.

"Who's that?" Zoe asked.

"That's none other than Chaud Suave." Victoria replied.

"Who?"

"He's a complete womanizer and a douchebag on all levels." Naomi explained.

"Really?"

"Yes! He even has a long track record of ladies he's gone out with, most of them ending in one night stands."

"OH my…" Zoe was awe struck by the information as she looked at the young man toss his wavy dirty blond hair that came down to his eyes. She caught a glimps of his green eyes as they winked at them before he disappeared behind a crowd of young girls.

"Hmmm… anyways. I was wondering if any of you or anyone you knew was missing anything lately." Zoe asked as she pensively rocked back and forth.

"No why?" Naomi was the first to respond.

"Oh nothing heh heh heh!" Zoe replied as she skipped away to the doors that led outside.

-xxx-

*KNOCK* *KNOCK*

The sound of Takuya tapping on the door leading to Mr. Hitoyoshi's office echoed.

"Yes, please come in."

Takuya walked in, sheepishly.

"Oh, Takuya? How are you, and how may I help you?"

"Nothing really. I just wanted to know if you were aware if anyone was missing anything that was important…and shiny."

"Huh… what an odd thing to ask, but now that you mentioned it; Ms. Avery has been missing something lately."

Takuya's attention rose. "Really?""

"Yeah the other day she told me lost a silver case…"

"Dang it…"

"It was the case for her glasses. I told she should really get used to using contact lenses. It brings her eyes out more."

"OH! OH, OK?" Takuya was relieved yet perplexed by the teacher's statement.

"Was there something you have that you wanted to show me?"

"Oh no no… I'll be leaving now." Takuya dashed out the office as fast as possible.

Mr. Hitoyoshi watched in bemusement as the young boy left his office without a trace. His back pressed against the back of his executive chair as he clasped his fingertips together. A delightful smile crept across as if he were plotting something.

-xxx-

Outside in front of the campus, Kouji, Kouichi, JP and Tommy were asking around each student if they knew of any missing valuables.

"No. I don't know anything..." one student replied, when Kouichi asked him.

"Nope. There's no one I know of that's missing anything." Another bystander replied as Tommy asked him the same question.

"Man, at this rate we'll never know who it is." Tommy moaned, although that was a good thing.

Meanwhile, JP jumped around to each female student, pestering them about any missing possessions.

"So do you know if anyone is missing something valuable?"

"Uh… no? Now buzz off! You're in my personal space." The girl replied as she took a step back.

"I'm sorry…" JP apologized for his rude behavior. He then had an idea. "but while I have your attention, what do you say you and I go out sometime? Eh? EH?"

The girl punched him in the stomach before she walked away with a repulsive attitude. "How about you go jump a cliff, creep!"

JP moaned in agony, clenching his guts before they fell out. "OW! C-come on… I-I_ JUST _ate!"

Kouichi finally came to a likely conclusion. "Let's face it. No one would own that much money in the first place. I think its drug money that some thug stashed away before the cops could catch him."

The four guys flinched at the idea.

"Well drug money or not, we're keeping that sucker. OK?...Ow my spleeeen." JP continued holding his abdomen. The girl may have ruptured something.

"Aw, JP. When will you ever learn?" Kouji quipped.

Suddenly a weird kid appeared behind them. "Did you guys say you know of something that's missing?"

Kouji, Kouichi, Tommy, and JP glance at one another before they answered. They were anxious and cautious of their words and actions.

"Maybe… who wants to know?" Kouji replied.

"Well, I was looking for a briefcase that I misplaced this morning." The boy answered. He had wild black hair and wore a yellow opened vest over a two-shades-of-blue striped sweater. He wore a peculiar pendant in the shape of a card.

"OH SO YOU WERE?" the four guys felt their heart sink.

"Well we have a silver briefcase," Tommy replied.

"You do? Let me see it?"

"Wait! Tell us what's in the briefcase, first!" Kouji lashed out before they accidently gave away any valuables to the wrong person.

"Oh well you see…" the boy looked around before he jutted his head forward and covered his mouth from the side as if he were about to divulge classified information.

"…there was a bunch of valuable stuff in there."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Top limited edition trading cards. It's my brother's but he lets me hold onto them for him, and if _I _don't find it, he's gonna _KILL_ me! He may even through me out of the family business. Man, I hate my life…"

"Oh…sorry to hear that, but we don't have such a thing." Kouichi replied,

"Yeah the briefcase we have has money in it." JP said before Kouji jabbed him in the injured gut for ratting out their secret to a stranger.

"Oh no worries. Money is not my issue right now…" the ragged haired boy walked off as tears mystified in his ruby violet eyes. "My brother's not going to be happy about this."

As the mysterious yet peculiar boy walked off, the gang watched him with doubtful expressions.

"I feel like I've seen him before…" said Tommy, scratching his orange mushroom hat.

"Yeah…" the others replied.

-xxx-

Afterwards the gang met up at the front of the school now that most of the school was back at their dorms or elsewhere.

"Any luck guys?" Takuya asked.

"No." The guys replied.

"Nothing here either." Zoe answered.

They were at a dead end, but this was a good kind of dead end.

"You know, Kouichi earlier said that the money was drug money." Tommy said. He thought it bore mentioning again to where Takuya and Zoe heard it.

"You know I didn't think of it? It _was_ just lying in the bushes."

"But like I said before we're gonna keep it now that it's ours." JP reminded them again.

"Plus, if it were drug money, I think we would be hearing police sirens around this neighborhood." Kouji said.

On cue a police car passed by with its sirens blaring. The gang gawked at one another, more nervous now that Kouji jinxed it.

"We'restillkeepingthemoney!" JP disrupted the tension.

"Well you know what this means. If no one claims it will be ours by tomorrow." said Kouichi with excitement. He could grasp victory.

"I thought you said three days… according to the hand book."

"Yes, but really… who's counting?"

"Yeah just think of what we could do with all that money…" Takuya pondered.

"We could build an arcade system in my room!" Tommy suggested.

"What?" Everyone objected.

"Now now, before you get all upset I was going to say you guys could also stop by anytime to have fun. It wouldn't be just for me."

"Of course not. First of all you and Shinya would get to enjoy it more than we would and second…hold on, by the way how _is_ my brother doing?"

"Oh, he's alright…" Tommy answered.

-xxx-

(Meanwhile at Tommy's dorm room)

"Is anyone out there?" Shinya asked, stranded in a random cage, "I need food! TAKUYA WHERE ARE YOU?"

-xxx-

"That's good to hear… I think…" Takuya replied to Tommy's answer.

"Well obviously you guys are missing the point. We definetly need a dojo. I could defiantly work on my technique!"

"A DOJO?"

"YES!" Kouji said. He affirmed them just in case he was vague in his remark.

"That's ridiculous. You guys are missing the BIG picture. With all that money we could invest in one the latest models of…" JP pulled a Kitchen Appliance catalog from no where, "THE OMEGA KITCHEN HELPER 3000X!" he went on to explain, " With it, it can cook your meals and help clean your messy room. It would also serve you like a servant! Did I mention it comes in a female maid version?"

Nobody was pleased to hear JP's proposal.

"I DID MENTION IT WAS OMEGA, WITH AN 'X', RIGHT?"

"JP everything with you always leads to food, sleep, or girls. What we should do is invest in something more productive like a new fashion line," Zoe eyes glazed over as the thought passed through her mind, "Just think off all the clothes and beauty cosmetics we'd make! We'd be RICHER!"

"No-way Zoe!" Takuya said, "You'd be the only one who would enjoying that _fantasy_! What we need… is a car! A sports Car. TOP FUTURE MODEL!"

The gang stared at him with doubt. He couldn't possibly be serious

"No, no, no… stay with me here. Now picture us on a cruise to the unknown in one of the latest sports cars of the future. We'd be traveling in style!"

"Get out of here! That's a stupid idea. WE all wouldn't fit in a sports car." Kouji objected.

"I know…"

"So in other words the car would be for…you?"

"Ex-Actly," Takuya nodded his head, repeatedly, "Isn't that a good idea." He smiled a toothy grin.

"Dammit Takuya! Could you be anymore selfish?"

"Hey, you're the selfish one!"

"All of you can bite me!"

"This is stupid…"

"GO SUCK AN EGG!"

"I LIKE TURLES!"

Before they knew it, they all were at each other's throats like cackling lions and hyenas. The dispute escalated until someone had to put an end to it.

"HEY! HEY! HEY!" Kouichi quieted the group. Everyone was huffing with anger. Even Tommy was on top of JP's neck, attempting to strangle him. "You guys, don't you see what is happening?"

"Well of course. You guys clearly just aren't on my level." Kouji remarked.

"What level?"

"You guys! This money is turning us against each other. I thought we agreed we would split it evenly and leave it at that?"

Everyone came to their senses as they "Ohed" in unison.

(Cue sad piano music)

"I'm sorry you guys. I got all worked up over this."

"No worrries. You were just passionate for the things you loved."

"And I guess I can be a little unrealistic at times."

"I'm SO glad were friends!"

"Yeah, let's not ever fight over something like this again!"

"Agreed!"

"NOW GROUP HUG EVERYON!"

(Cue the blissful/inspirational music)

The group laughed and chuckled at each other for being so stupid, getting worked up over materialistic things.

(*Vinyl Record Scratch*)

"Alright guys. Play time is over." Kouji broke reality in.

The gang stopped hugging and prepared to go their separate ways.

"Alright you guys, I got to head to soccer practice," said Takuya

"Yeah, and I have to go. I'm going to be in the marching band at the school football game later on tonight," JP mentioned.

"We have to go the pregame show. We promised we'd volunteer for the preparations," said Kouji, Kouichi, and Tommy.

"Oh wow. You guys are unlucky. I don't have to do anything today. My volleyball practice was canceled because of the game, which I can't wait to see."

The other guys snarled a Zoe's remark, as snarky as it was.

"Well see you guys!"

"See ya!"

"Bye!

With that they group disbanded and went their separate ways for the afternoon.

-xxx-

(Meanwhile, aft the fiasco…)

The majority of the school population was at the Legacy Stadium nearby, getting ready to watch the school football game. It was the first one of the season and everyone was pumped up… everyone except Zoe.

Throughout the day Zoe had only heard of the mysterious briefcase full of money but never got an opportunity to see it firsthand. So with this chance, since most of the guys were at the game, and Takuya was at soccer practice, Zoe decided to sneak into the guy's room to see for herself.

To start off, she wore a clingy grey sweater and black leggings with black socks. She was incognito for the situation like a diamond thief attempting to rob a jewelry store. She wrapped her hair in a ponytail as she dashed from bushes to bushes. She found herself near the front gate of the dormitory as students passed through the gate. The girl walked by them hoping they would not notice her. They did.

She was now in the elevator and on the second floor. She paced here way over to room "217" and turned the door handle. It was locked. At the same instance, two students walked by, having a serious discussion about cats and which ones were the cutest. Zoe stood in place with her arms folded, whistling a whimsical tune. As soon as the coast cleared, she pulled a hair pin from her hair and began to fiddle with the door lock. As she persisted the door eventually snapped and came undone.

"Oh yeah Zoe… you got the skills." Zoe bragged to herself as she stepped inside the room.

The door closed and everything was still. The air was a tense. She could almost swear there were trip wires around the area just in case someone was to intrude. She looked around the area, disrobing and dismantling just about everything to see where the briefcase was but to no avail.

"I better clean this up before I leave," the girl thought as she walked around with her arms folded. She was perplexed at how well the thing was hidden… that was until she had an idea where to locate it.

She looked at the kitchen cabinets and went for the first one she saw.

"Aha! Scum!"

Zoe shrieked as the omnipresent Kouji jumped out of the cabinet. It was surprising how he could fit in there to begin with.

"How'd you?"

"Ssh ssh ssssssh… no need to worry about that. Now EXPLAIN yourself!"

"Awww… come on, Kouji! I just wanted to see the money."

Kouji ignored her request.

"NO! You're tempted eyes would be corrupted with greed. I can already see it."

"No they're not? Can I at least see what all you guys are talking about? Can I see the money?"

"I'm afraid not, Zoe."

Zoe was now getting irritated and curious, which was not a good mix.

"Pleeeeeeease, Kouji? Pretty pleeeeeeeeeeeeease?"" Zoe pouted her lower lip as her eyes watered like a puppy.

"Zoe! Those puppy eyes may work on Takuya, they definitely work on JP, but they will _not_ work on me!" Kouji held his stand while holding the briefcase, "Besides, you shouldn't even be here. This is the _guy's_ dorm room. You could get in trouble as well as me and the rest of the guys… well me in particular."

"Ok… I promise I'll leave as soon as you show me the money…"

Both Kouji and Zoe had an intense eye contest. Kouji kept his grave demeanor face while Zoe stared back at him anxiously.

"Fine…" Kouji gave in.

"Yay, you fill my heart with joy." Zoe glomped Kouji, before he could retract his statement.

"Yeah yeah, now get off me."

-xxx-

Meanwhile outside the halls, Takuya got off soccer practice early and decided to head home for a quick shower before he headed to the school game. In the process he realized he could mention the briefcase to his headmaster, Sgt. Colonel, like the guys suggested.

He noticed the elderly man was in his office and knocked on the door.

"Who goes there?"

"Um… it's me, Takuya."

"What do you want, boy?"

"Um I have something to show you."

The officer opened the door and stood in front of Takuya. Standing 6' 4", he was an intimidating sight up close

"Well?"

"Um it's a briefcase, sir. I was wondering if you knew anyone that was looking for it."

"Hmm? This better not be a sick prank your tryinna play on me, boy."

"NO! No, sir."

"Then show me this briefcase, boy. Show me right away. I don't want to miss the school game."

"Don't worry, sir! Right this way." Takuya bowed before he led the way back to his room.

-xxx-

Kouji cracked the briefcase as light began to emanate from the inside. As it fully opened a chorus of angelic symphony sounded throughout the room. Even a flock of doves flapped their wings as they flew out of the briefcase.

"Its… beautiful…" said Zoe as she marveled over the sight.

Kouji quickly shut the silver case causing Zoe to flinch.

"What? Why'd you do that?"

"Ssssh! Someone's coming!" Kouji shunned the girl as his dark blue eyes darted to each corner of his eye sockets.

He heard the voice of Takuya and Sgt. Colonel on the other side of the door.

"Dammit! Quick we've got to hide!" Kouji placed the briefcase back in the cabinet and grabbed Zoe into the nearest hiding spot, the bathroom.

Takuya opened the door. "It's in here…"

Both Takuya and the Sergeant gawked at the room with wide eyes.

"What in torpedo kamikazes happened here? I think I need to do surprise inspections more often. This place is a disaster."

"Sir, I swear it was not like this before! Someone must have messed up the place."

"Well I'm going to have to settle with this later now show me this briefcase."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the bathroom door, Kouji pressed his ears to the door.

"Dammit, Takuya must have told our headmaster about the briefcase."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Well, I don't know but one thing's for certain… we need to get you the hell out of here!" Kouji whispered.

"How do we do that?"

Kouji looked at the narrow window that Kouichi mentioned earlier. It was the only way.

"Quick, you're going to leave through the window."

"Through there?" Zoe studied the window and back at her shape, "I'm not sure I would fit."

"Of course you would fit. Kouichi managed to get through there earlier. If this were JP then that would be another story."

Kouji got on top of the commode and pulled Zoe up to his level. She stepped on the tank and peered outside the window

"Are you sure about this?" Zoe sounded anxious about the situation.

"Just do it. We have no other options."

Zoe proceeded through the window while Kouji kept watch on the door for any sudden movements.

"How am I going to get down from here?"

"I don't know… do you see anything that you can reach?"

"I see nothing but a large tree branch."

"Ok, good. You can use that to climb your way back down then."

Suddenly, Zoe started making grunting noises. "Crap! I think I'm stuck."

"What?" Kouji hissed as he rushed up towards the window, "What do you mean you're stuck?"

"I mean 'I'm stuck'. I can't move." Zoe budged some more but to no avail. Her feet dangled in the air like a rag doll.

"No no no no. You have to make it through." Kouji became nervous which was a rare sight to see. He stepped up behind the girl on the toilet seat. His throat gulped as he proceeded to push her through the window.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Zoe was turning red in the face, "Get your hands away from there." She felt uncomfortable with Kouji placing his hands on her butt, trying to force her through the window.

"Zoe, now's not the time for modesty. We have to get you out of here, pronto!" Kouji continued pushing but she was not budging, "Dammit… see if you can you're your stomach in."

"I've already tried that." There was a quiver in her voice.

"Dammit! Kouichi how _did_ you get through here?" Kouji mumbled to himself. "You need to lose some weight, Zoe!"

"Hey, for your information, my figure is just fine!" Zoe lashed back at the boy.

"I was speaking figuratively." Kouji replied before he gained an idea. "Hold on. I need to get something that will lubricate you through the window."

"Do what?"

-xxx-

Takuya just got through showing Sgt. Colonel the money and expected him to confiscated, but instead what he did surprised him.

"Well, boy I must say you are lucky. All I can tell you is keep the thing until tomorrow. If no one claims it, it's yours.'

Takuya's face lightened up like a child at an amusement park. The headmaster made his way to the door until he remembered another important thing.

"Oh yeah. While I'm here, I might as well do an inspection just to make sure you guys aren't hiding any contraband on my floor."

"Oh please Sgt Colonel. We wouldn't have any such thing…"

"We'll see about that…" the veteran began to walk around to each bed and station, checking for anything out of the ordinary.

-xxx-

"Dang it. He's definitely going to come in here any minute." Kouji overheard the headmaster on the other side of the door.

"You know… I wanted to live a happy life before I died, but now I'm going to be stuck here all because of my stupid curiosity." Zoe's future flashed before her eyes. She imagined herself turning old as her friends came to visit her through the window. They would have to climb a ladder individually just to greet her.

"Why did I have to be so stupid?"

"Zoe! Pull yourself together!" Kouji encouraged the girl the best he could.

He continued searching for anything that would loosen Zoe through the window. He found a peculiar body wash that JP used on a regular basis. It had the picture of a fat baby on the cover in the mist of bubbles.

"JP… this is just six kinds of crazy…" Kouji then placed some of the blue liquid into his hand before he applied it to Zoe's abdominal area.

"S-stop t-that heh heh that ti-ickles!" Zoe tried to contain herself, but she was known for being ticklish.

"Zoe this would be a whole lot less creepy if you'd stop saying things like that…"

"Hey, you're not the one stuck inside a window someone tried to force you through, now are you?" Zoe retorted as she kicked him in the stomach without looking.

"Zoe, stop it!" Kouji hissed. She caused him to fumble the bottle, spilling the blue body wash all over the place. A wet patch fell on his feet causing him to slip his foot into the toilet bowl, as water splashed onto him.

"SHIT!" the boy yelled which would have been the correct term to use if JP had forgotten to flush in the morning. He looked back up after falling only to realize his hand caught Zoe's pants, pulling them down to her thigh in the process. He was face to face with her white and purple striped panties, embroidered with a Hello kitty face staring back at him.

"WHAT THE HELL KOUJI! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Zoe yelled, her voice cracking. Her face was flustered with a crimson red as a few students walked by the window. They were curious about the showing going on at floor room 217.

"I SWEAR, IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! I SLIPPED!" Kouji apologized. His eyes were wide as if he had seen a ghost. He'd never seen Zoe from this point of view before.

"YOU'RE LOOKING, AREN'T YOU! QUIT IT!" Zoe's feet flailed, knocking Kouji back. He fell hard on his back as his head bounced against the tiled floor. He sat up after the knock down and rubbed his sore head. After, he looked up and saw Sgt. Colonel and Takuya looking in through the door.

"What in torpedo kamikazes is going on here?" the headmaster asked. He demanded that he get an understanding.

All Kouji could do was look away sheepishly, more flustered than Zoe herself. Although the girl could not see what was going on, she knew she was busted as well.

-xxx-

"So let me get this straight… you're getting detention?" Kouichi asked. It was later on in the evening, the guys were back in the dorm room and it was getting late.

"Yes! It's the first one I've ever gotten!" Kouji explained himself to his brother. After what happened, the headmaster signed him a pink slip for his conduct of behavior, regardless of the fact it was all a misunderstanding.

"Yeah and Zoe got one too." Takuya added as he watched the twins' discussion. "So what exactly where you doing in there? If I didn't know better I'd say…"

"Hey, you watch yourself, Takuya! All that you saw was no more than a horrible coincidence. I would never intentionally pull down Zoe's britches!"

JP immediately sprayed his drink from his mouth after hearing that remark. "You did what?" JP exclaimed.

"Don't get any ideas, JP. It was all an accident." Kouji defended himself again.

"So then explain yourself." Takuya replied with a half skeptic, half taunting attitude.

"Look. Zoe came in here trying to find the briefcase, but she didn't know I was guarding it as usual…"

"You did that creepy teleporting thing again didn't you?" JP said.

"When she found out I was guarding the briefcase, she wanted to see what was inside. I told her no but eventually I let her have a sneak peak…." Kouji continued with the story, ignoring JP.

"Heh-heh… that's what she said…" Takuya joked.

"It was then that Takuya and Sgt. Colonel came inside, and I hid inside the bathroom with Zoe. I tried to get her out of here through the window, but… you can guess how that went."

"Lucky…" JP muttered as he took a sip of his drink, unaware that the others heard him.

"What was that?" Kouji retorted.

"Oh nothing." JP replied.

"So is she OK?" Kouichi asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah. She's fine," Kouji answered, " They had to call the school maintenance to get her out from the window. They even gave us a new window."

All three of the guys took a look at the window as if it were… eye candy.

Suddenly, JP yawned and stretched his hands to the ceiling. "Well I'm tired you guys. After a day like this I could use my rest." JP then climbed into his bed, "Good night guys!"

The guys wondered to themselves as to why JP went to bed earlier than usual.

Meanwhile, it began to pour outside like it did in the morning, only this time there was lightening crackling through the sky. The flash of light emanated through the window, alerting them that it was raining.

"I guess we should all go to bed then." Kouichi suggested. The others agreed as they changed and got into their beds.

"Good night everyone!" said Kouichi.

"Good night!" everyone else replied as the lights went out.

The rain poured for a good five minutes while the gang slept, peacefully. It was pitch black and no one could see anything. With a flash of lightning seeping through the window, a silhouette of a large figured hovered over the beds. In another flash there was a another shadow crouched near the kitchen. With each flash of lightning there were shadows moving within the room. The lights finally came on as the gang realized they all were trying to pull a fast one on each other. They woke up to get their hands on the briefcase.

"SCUM!" Kouji yelled with a vehement tone.

"Out of my way!" JP yelled as he pushed Kouichi aside. Kouichi fell into a pile of clothes on the floor.

Takuya tripped JP, causing the large boy to fall down on his chin. With the opportunity he dashed over to the cabinet, but Kouji was once again holding the briefcase before anyone could get to it.

"I swear you guys! This thing has gotten me into TOO much trouble today! I'm not going to let you guys take it from here!" he Sparta kicked Takuya in the chest, crashing him into the refrigerator.

Takuya rushed to his feet and came over to Kouji to tackle him, but in one swift movement, Kouji drew out his katana that he kept at his side of the bed.

"Don't take another step!"

Takuya snarled. He found a chair and raised it up as a weapon. Meanwhile Kouichi got up and picked up a bo staff, twirling it around like a wushu artist. JP, being the last to his feet, picked up the nearest and deadliest thing to match their weapons… a frying pan.

"So is this how you guys want to go?" Kouji twirled the blade in his one free hand, "Cause I'm ready to dance!"

"I don't dance!" Takuya replied, "I KILL!" he lunged forward with the chair and tossed it, but Kouji quickly deflected it with a swift move of his sword, cutting the thing in half.

It was Kouich's turn to face Kouji as he sprang forward with his staff. Kouji swung his blade to scare his brother off but Kouichi knelt to the ground to doge it, thrusting the blunt end of the stick into his brother's torso. The long hair boy fell back, launching the briefcase in the air as Kouichi caught it in mid air. JP saw his opportunity as he rushed behind Kouichi with his frying pan and wacked him over the head. Kouichi fell to the ground still clenching the case of money. It was everyone's gain as they scrambled over to the fallen boy to grab the briefcase like hungry men scavenging over the same food. With everyone's hand on the prize they beat each other until one of them came out victorious. This continued throughout the night until they all grew weary and tired.

-xxx-

(Early next morning…)

The guys slowly woke up with groggy faces. They all realized they still had their hands on the case of money. Looking at one another, they waited for the other person to let go.

"Ok, this isn't going to work unless all of us let go at the same time." Kouji said as he rubbed his eyes.

The rest of the guys agreed as they slowly rose to their feet. They walked over to the same hiding spot and counted to three before they dropped it and carried on with their morning.

It was then they had a good chance to finally look at one another, and the damage they had caused. Each carried black eyes and bruises all over their bodies.

"Wow! I did that to you?" Takuya asked as he pointed at Kouji's battered face.

Kouji glanced back at the boy before he snarled, "You don't look so good yourself."

-xxx-

During the walk to school, the four teenagers strolled at a slow pace. Not one looked at the other as if they were ashamed of what they'd done.

"Hey guys!" both Tommy and Zoe greeted the four of them. They all replied back with a monotone.

Zoe instantly looked down when her eyes met Kouji's. She still remembered the fiasco from the day before and was completely embarrassed.

"What do you say we put all this nonsense behind us," Takuya glanced at the two as he made his remark, "I think it's time we started behaving like adults. Besides, you know what this means? We get to keep the money and split it like we planned."

"YEAH!" the rest of the gang agreed, unanimously.

"You guys must have had one hell of a night." Tommy said as he analyzed each of the four guys.

Takuya gave the young one a stern look. "Don't ask…"

-xxx-

(During Homeroom)

The class was rowdy right before Ms. Avery stepped in the door.

"Good morning students. Time to settle down now."

The class dispersed to their seats. At the same moment Florence from yesterday stepped into the class. He was fashionably late.

"Pardon me, Ms. Avery. I do believe I'm fashionably late."

"Your excused, Florence now have your seat."

The gray haired boy walked over to the seat in front of Takuya as he staired at the aloof boy. Takuya glanced back at him with one goofy smile, unsure if Florence was normally a serious person or could once in a while crack a smile.

"I swear, you lack of mannahs bothers me." Florence said, before he finally took a seat.

-xxx-

After the school bell blared throughout the hallways, the students of Ms. Avery class began to head out the door.

"And don't forget to do your assignment. No Excuses. No Exceptions."

Takuya, Zoe and the twins lingered back to discuss what they would finally do with the money. A lethargic ecstasy stimulated their senses. It wasn't every day they got lucky in such a situation as this.

"So after school, I'll get the briefcase and split the money with you all, six ways, and we'll go from there."

"Is still can't believe we're going to be rich by the end of today."

"Yeah, its not everyday someone leaves a silver briefcase in a bush for someone else ot find."

The conversation perked Florence's ears as he began to pack up.

"Did you fellows say you found a silver briefcase with money in it?"

They gang felt their heart drop, slightly. "Yeah, who wants to know?"

"Did you just happen to find this yesterday?"

"Yes, I did…" Takuya replied, feeling his heart drop further.

"Oh my, I believe you found my treasured briefcase full of money that my father gave me."

"Really?"

By now the team's hearts were on the ground, squashed to syrupy pancake.

"Yes, I somehow misplaced it in the rain yesterday, but I'm certainly glad you guys found it. Where did you place it?"

"It's back at our dorm room."

"Good I'll meet you all there to retrieve it."

"Hold on!" Kouji cut him off, "if you were missing it, how come you didn't tell anybody… or at least tell an official?"

"Well my dear lad, if theres something I've learned is that people can be a bit, greedy and feisty over money. I wouldn't dare just ask anyone letting them know that such a prize possession of mine exist, would you?"

"Got a point…" Kouji mumbled to his own hearing.

"But don't worry, I'll pay you all small percentage for finding me my dad's parting gift to me. Tah tah for now!"

The aristocratic boy walked out the door with a chipper in his step as he hummed a enlightening tune.

"Well… at least we found the owner…." Kouichi added his words to the discouraging situation.

Takuya glanced at Kouichi and the other two then back at the waltzing Florence.

"That's the first, I've ever seen him smile since he got here… THIS WHOMPS!"

The endeavors for finding the owner had paid off… unfortunately.

(**Ending Song:** Untitled, by Simple Plan)

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

**A/N:** I had originally started this is in October of last year, but school took over. And then I couldn't finish it till the end of the semester. Plus I was working on the third episode of the Frontier Abridged series, so that took a chunk of my time. But here it is… all done.

I'm not really sure where to go from here. I had originally planned to do a Halloween and Christmas episode, but I don't know. I guess till next time…


End file.
